Sunday, April 30, 2023 — that’s 18 years to the day when six-year-old Shanika Anderson was abducted, raped and murdered, and still no one has been found criminally responsible for that brutality.

Shanika is one of scores of children who will again be in the spotlight as the nation — known for bloody attacks on its citizens by the lawless, and its high percentage of violent aggression against women and children in particular — starts its annual observation of Child Month tomorrow.

The child, who came into this life on June 8, 1998 and was described by a former teacher as future track star, lived in the volatile Maxfield Avenue area of St Andrew.

On April 30, 2005, Shanika and a boy, aged 11, who was with her, were lured from Coronation Market in west Kingston by a man who convinced them that he was taking them to buy patties.

Her mother, Ruth Green, a vendor in the market, told investigators after the child was reported missing that she had left her and the boy for a short while to get items to sell and upon her return they were nowhere to be found. The police told her then that she had to wait 24 hours to file a missing person’s report — something that has changed now — but the family believes that had an immediate effort been made to find Shanika she would most likely be alive today.

The boy returned to Coronation Market at dusk and told investigators that the man had bought them patties and drink in the Parade area of downtown Kingston, sat them down at St William Grant Park, and later took Shanika to an unknown location. He, however, slipped away, perhaps sensing that something terrible was amiss.

But the news that Shanika’s family and friends dreaded to hear came the following day, the beginning of Child Month, that her body had been found on an unoccupied lot of land in Manley Meadows, east Kingston, a journey of about 10 minutes by car from Coronation Market. That was just under a month before her seventh birthday.

Investigators described the find as gruesome, as the child was confirmed to have been raped and strangled. It emerged that her body had bruises to the vagina, head, and back. Bloody clothes and a used condom were found close to her body, head pointed toward the sky.

Police, over the years, have held three male suspects, after a reward of $100,000 was offered for information leading to an arrest, but they were released after DNA samples did not connect them to the crime.

Today, a foundation in Shanika’s name, started by YouTube influencer Claude “Big Stone” Sinclair, continues to recognise her and other children who have transitioned through violent means over the years.

On Monday, one of the signature Child Month events will be held at Amy Jacques Garvey Community Centre, 15B Jacques Road, to, again, reflect on the life and times of Shanika. It will take the form of a candlelight vigil, and is set to begin at 6:30 pm and last until 10:00 pm.

Reverend Bertram Gayle and Roman Catholic deacon and environmentalist Peter Espeut will lead worshippers at the event. There will be a special performance by Veila Espeut, as well as a violin performance by Yinga.

Eighteen years ago, during the service of thanksgiving for Shanika’s life, three weeks after her brutal murder, then senior Cabinet minister Portia Simpson Miller, who a year later became prime minister upon the retirement of P J Patterson, lashed the child’s killer, sending him a message that he would not escape God.

“Murderer, rapist, criminal, animal, cast your eyes on the casket. You have robbed us of a bright star, and you are having fun and smiling now, but the last laugh belongeth to the family and God, whose eyes are piercing down on you,” Simpson Miller said during the service at Whitfield Town Seventh-day Adventist Church in her St Andrew South Western constituency.

“Murderer, you will not get away. God is a just God. We will receive justice. We might not know you now, but the eyes of the Almighty are watching you. She could have been the next Member of Parliament for this constituency, the councillor for this division, the next school principal,” Simpson Miller said of the former St Francis Basic School and Whitfield Town All-Age pupil.

“Parents, don’t just see her as a little girl from Whitfield Town, see her as your daughter — raped, murdered, left to die. Take the decision now that something must be done to protect our children,” Simpson Miller added.

Shanika’s mom told the Jamaica Observer that she still suffers from the loss of her offspring.

“It just not working,” she said. “It’s like I am reliving the moment. I just can’t get over it, even to this day. The main part of it is that they don’t hold anybody for her murder over those years, so it hurts and, although I am a kind person, the killer may be someone who begs me something and I am giving him, not knowing that he is the one who took Shanika from me,” Green said.

“The other day I was looking at some documents and Shanika’s picture was there, and I just could not continue to look. So, even 18 years later I am still having bad feelings about losing Shanika,” Green said from her West Street, Kingston business location last Thursday.

Sinclair, who is also a record producer and motivational speaker, bemoaned the fact that many of the brutal murders of children were still unsolved. He said that tomorrow’s candlelight vigil is being held for all of the island’s missing and slain children.

“There are a lot of children who remain missing. There are a lot of unsolved cases out there where our children who have been murdered, like the case of nine-year-old Courtney Alexander Walker in Bamboo River, St Thomas, who was murdered in March 2009; his case remains unsolved.

“That boy had followed his mother to the river to wash clothes, but she ran out of soap and she sent him back home to get the soap. On the way back home he took a short cut and was held by two men who buggered him mercilessly and then stabbed him 57 times and left him there,” Sinclair said.

He went on to give other instances of children being killed and, according to him, very little has been done to bring offenders to justice.

“We also have the Yetanya Francis case of 2019. She was also murdered and burnt in Arnett Gardens. In fact, Yetanya’s mother had sent her out around 10:00 pm to buy food and she was attacked and burnt near her house. It was so bad that her mother smelt when she was being burnt and thought that someone had set a dog on fire, only to find out that it was her daughter,” Sinclair said.

“There is also Shantay Skyers of upper St Andrew hills — her case has still not been resolved. A young man of unsound mind was beaten by a mob and murdered, and he was not the one responsible for her death. So her killer or killers are still out there,” said Sinclair, a former member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, which he served as a trumpeter in the force band. He also served the Jamaica Defence Force as an enlisted soldier.

“These are the kinds of beasts that we have out there,” the former United States resident continued.

Sinclair also has a problem with the monument on Church Street, downtown Kingston, named Secret Garden, which bears the name of several children who have died at the hands of child abusers, and others who have gone missing.

“Why call it Secret Garden? That is not a Secret Garden, it should be called Garden of Disgrace, because that’s what it is. We have to ask the question in this country… is someone gaining from the disappearance of our children, or have we gone into the business of organ trafficking by preying on our children?

“We have failed our children. We are not celebrating Child Month, we are celebrating the slaughtering of our children,” he said.

“Look at Shanika’s case… she would have been a beautiful 24-year-old woman today. She was first in all her classes. It has been all of 18 years and it is still unsolved, even with DNA evidence available, as the police collected sperm samples from the used condom. I bet you that if Shanika was someone from the uptown area of Kingston, more effort would have been put into the investigation,” Sinclair charged.

Shanika also left to mourn, dad Harold Anderson, brothers, and sisters.