Weeks after brush with gunman, hairdresser turns up dead

When Macquisha Smith never returned to her workstation last Thursday afternoon after leaving to meet a family friend, her employer, Natisha Miller, became anxious.

Her unease was further fuelled when the salon’s receptionist phoned her the following day saying the boyfriend and relatives of Macquisha had been trying to find her. The stylist’s handbag was still at her workstation at the same spot she had left it the day before.

Staffers had asked Smith of her destination, but she only said, “Mi just a guh meet somebody. Mi just a guh meet somebody. Ms Miller, you can buzz me out?’”

Those were her last words around noon that day.

“She should have come back,” Miller told The Gleaner sombrely during a visit to Babae Styles Salon at Retirement Road in Kingston, where Smith has been employed as a trainee hairdresser for a month.

Miller further stated that the 21-year-old had asked a bearer to direct her to 14 Retirement Road before leaving.

“She was such a sweet soul. I just can’t understand what happened,” Miller said.

After a missing person report was filed, her co-workers took action and started circulating flyers online with the hope of her return.

But Smith’s decomposing corpse was found on the Port Royal main road in Kingston on Monday afternoon.

Her family has been left heartbroken.

Chevell Smith, Macquisha’s sister, told The Gleaner that a threat was made on her life after moving to the suburban community of Three Oaks in St Andrew about a month ago.

When a white Toyota Axio motor car stopped in front of her on November 4, one of several men alighted and pulled a firearm and chased after her.

“Kill him wah kill her, but true she a scream and mek up bare noise, mi nuh know if a fraid him get fraid and nuh want nobody see him, but she seh when she drop and look roun, di person already gone inna di car,” the deceased’s sister said.

Chevell wishes now that Macquisha had continued to live with her family in Denham Town, Kingston, where she grew up. Chevell told The Gleaner that her sister wanted to become a full-fledged hairdresser and was ecstatic when she landed what she described as her “dream job” at Babae Styles Salon.

Grieving mother Latoya Armstrong says life will never be the same for her. She still remembers her daughter as full of life and love.

“She always smile. She dress up. She do make-up. She sing. She cares bout people,” Armstrong briefly said.

ainsworth.morris@gleanerjm.com