Vanished without a trace

Chantal Blake McCalla vanished almost seven months ago, leaving four young children without a mother.

Similar to the case of missing social media personality Donna-Lee Donaldson, her last known contact was with her husband, businessman Shane McCalla.

Blake McCalla and Donaldson are among 848 people, including 527 children, who have been reported missing in Jamaica since the start of the year, according to police statistics reviewed by The Sunday Gleaner.

Twenty-four have been confirmed dead, while 271 – including 132 girls and 35 boys – remain missing.

Blake McCalla’s disappearance was reported to the Matilda’s Corner Police Station in St Andrew by her husband in January, the police confirmed.

McCalla told his wife’s family and the police that he dropped her off in Old Harbour, St Catherine, where she was expected to meet up with a friend, the missing woman’s twin sister Chevelle Blake claimed.

The McCallas operate SM Quality Construction, based in Old Harbour.

Donaldson has not been seen or heard from since she was picked up by her boyfriend, police constable Noel Maitland, on the evening of July 11, her mother Sophia Lugg has claimed repeatedly.

It has not escaped Chevelle Blake and her family’s attention that amid a wave of public outcry and protests, Maitland was arrested 13 days after the Donaldson was reported missing.

Blake knows first-hand the pain and the uncertainty the Donaldson family is grappling with.

“When there is no closure, it’s crazy, and it’s something that can drive you insane if you don’t take control of it,” Blake said during a Sunday Gleaner interview last week. “I hope they have better luck than us.”

Still, she harboured questions about how two similar investigations could progress at significantly different speeds.

“Is it because we did not go on social media calling out people why we are not getting any justice?” Blake queried. “We are not well known. We are not from an affluent background … . Based on your status in this country, it speaks to the justice that you will get.”

The family, she said, had one simple request.

“We were not asking for the police to bring my sister back alive because I know she is dead. What we wanted them to do was to investigate. Help us find out what actually happened. Give us closure,” said the twin sister.

“And they did not do that. There was no proper investigation and there was nothing comforting for us. It was just false hope.”

The probe into Blake McCalla’s disappearance is being led by the Major Investigation Division, the Matilda’s Corner police disclosed on Friday.

A DNA test unsealed later confirmed that human remains found on May 15 in Bellas Gate, St Catherine, belonged to Blake McCalla, her sister disclosed, citing one of the investigators assigned to the case.

There was no indication whether a suspect had been identified, she said.

WON’T BOW TO PRESSURE

Fitz Bailey, the country’s crime chief, acknowledged that hundreds of people go missing across Jamaica annually, but pushed back at suggestions that police investigations can be influenced by public pressure.

“We have to be very careful that we do not allow people to get the impression that the police will react in favour of some people and neglect others,” said Bailey, the deputy police commissioner who heads the Criminal Investigations Branch of the police force.

“I am not going to bow to any public pressure and I am not going to cause my detectives to bow to any public pressure. We are going to do our investigation and we are going to be professional,” he insisted.

A total of 8,324 people have been reported missing across Jamaica since 2018, police statistics show. A majority are safely reunited with their families.

A breakdown of the figures shows that 5,344 of those reported missing over the near five-year period are women, including 4,362 girls, and 2,980 are males, including 1,154 boys. Two hundred and twenty-three have been confirmed dead – 172 men, 34 women, 10 girls and seven boys. A total of 2,142 people are still missing – 940 girls, 228 boys, 701 men and 273 women.

The task facing police investigators is even more daunting, Bailey argued, given the “frequency and magnitude” of the murders in Jamaica.

Seeking to illustrate the gravity of the situation, he said the force has fewer than 1,500 investigators and support personnel to grapple with an annual average of 1,300 murders and other serious crimes.

“CSI is a re-enactment. It is not real,” said Bailey, referring to the popular American crime drama series. “People see CSI and believe that’s the way investigations go. People must be able to distinguish facts from fiction.”

DEEN CASE NOT ACTIVE

Among those still listed as missing are Jasmine Deen, a visually impaired student of The University of the West Indies, who vanished on February 27, 2020; and popular photographer Niketa Thomas, who, along with his cousin Dwight Brown, disappeared on October 5, 2015.

The Deen case file is not closed, but it is “not an active case that we are pursuing”, Bailey confirmed.

“We have exhausted all the investigative leads that were available. We have done a lot of work in that case. We have gotten several calls and we went to several places … and we still have not come up with anything of evidential value,” he explained.

Lloyd Deen was blindsided by the latest update on his daughter’s disappearance.

“Bout year an a half me nuh hear nutten from dem, y’know. Dem nuh check wid me, dem nuh update me. Nutten at all,” the still distraught father told The Sunday Gleaner on Friday, referring to police investigators.

“It mek you feel like you haffi get you own justice ‘cause no justice no deh fi we,” he added, vowing not to give up the search for his daughter.

Thomas’ disappearance has been an emotional roller coaster for the family, his nephew Glenroy Jackson told The Sunday Gleaner.

It has been more than seven years since he went missing and under Jamaican law, he can be legally declared dead, but Jackson said some family members, himself included, have still have not come to terms with Thomas’ disappearance.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com