NEWS BRIEFS…
Barbara Johnson heads ‘Baby Pansy’ probe
FORMER head of the Bustamante Hospital for Children, Dr Barbara Johnson, has been appointed to lead the probe into the whereabouts of ‘Baby Pansy’, whom the Mandeville Regional Hospital has been unable to account for since last September.
Johnson was appointed after DNA tests revealed last week that the body of a baby the hospital had labeled as ‘baby Pansy’ did not belong to parents Pansy Campbell and Roy McLean.
The couple yesterday said that they were thinking of suing the hospital.
“Our lawyer is working on the case. I want answers to know what happened to my child,” the child’s mother told the Observer yesterday.
To date, the hospital and funeral home have accused each other of having mixed up the bodies and tags of two babies that had died at the same time. According to Calvin Lyn, proprietor of Lyn’s funeral home where the baby’s body was sent from the hospital, there was still one baby body there that was unidentified.
Two from suspected drug plane held
A team of cops from the forensics department will today visit the Ken Jones Aerodrome to examine the twin engine Cessna which was seized on Saturday. The aircraft is suspected of being used in drug running.
And two of five men who are believed to have been refueling the plane when cops approached, were taken into custody yesterday but the search is still on for the other three. The five men allegedly opened fire at lawmen and escaped into nearby bushes on Saturday evening.
In the 1990’s about 20 planes were seized under the Prop Lock Programme, according to head of narcotics, SSP Carl Williams. Those aircraft were later sent back to the US where they were sold and the proceeds shared between the US and Jamaican governments, which used the funds in their respective drug fighting efforts, Williams explained.
Since the year 2000, a number of planes have been seized and in addition to the Cessna, one still remains in the island, in Montego Bay. It is to be turned over to the US soon, Williams said.
Student killed in building collapse
A 16 year-old student of Calabar High School was killed yesterday when a derelict building collapsed on him at Bloomsbury Road, off Hagley Park Road, Kingston 10.
He has been identified as Jason Lincoln Arnold of Bloomsbury Road.
Reports from the CCN’s metro officer are that at about 2:15 pm, Jason was reportedly in the vicinity of the building when it collapsed, crushing him to death. The police were summoned and the body was removed from the rubble and taken to the morgue.
The Half Way Tree Police are investigating.