My prayers won’t be in vain, says Slickianna’s mother
Published:Friday | October 25, 2024 | 12:10 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Two years after Aneka ‘Slickianna’ Townsend was murdered, Joy Smith is patiently waiting for the day that she gets justice for her daughter.
“It is hard to lose a child who you talked to two days before and then you hear that the child is dead,” said Smith, who is awaiting the conclusion of the murder trial in the St James Circuit Court.
“If she had crashed or been in an accident, that would be different, but I saw her on Tuesday that week, then I talked to her on Wednesday, and then on Friday, I heard she was dead. I am just holding the faith and just hope that God can give me some justice,” she told The Gleaner on Thursday.
Smith was speaking hours after Townsend’s accused killer, Rushawn Patterson, had his bail extended to January 31, 2025, after his latest appearance in the St James Circuit Court before presiding High Court Justice Bertram Morrison.
DNA report outstanding
During the brief mention, it was disclosed that an outstanding post-mortem report has been added to the prosecution’s case file, but a DNA report has not yet been completed. The case was subsequently set for mention on January 31, 2025, to facilitate the file’s completion and disclosure of the prosecution’s documents to Patterson’s attorney, Dionne Meyler.
But while the court case is progressing slowly, Smith continues to rue how her daughter met her demise in 2022.
“Every 21st of every month, I cannot sleep. I went over to Dovecot Cemetery on Tuesday this week to paint around Aneka’s graveside,” revealed Smith.
“We never really got any counselling since that time, but I am just coping ... . I do not wish this on anyone at all. No mother is supposed to bury their pickney; it is pickney who is supposed to bury their mother,” she added. “I am just leaving it in God’s hands because I know my prayers, and my eyewater are not going to be in vain.”
Patterson was charged with Townsend’s murder on November 11, 2022, just under three weeks after Townsend’s body was found in the sea along the Montego Bay coastline. A post-mortem examination determined that she had been strangled.
According to police reports, Townsend had travelled from Kingston to Montego Bay on October 20, 2022, and was later picked up by Patterson, following which they visited a restaurant in Hanover and a guest house in St James. Some time during the night, an argument allegedly developed between the two, following which Townsend was strangled and her body disposed of.