ST CATHERINE, Jamaica – Senior Superintendent, Christopher Phillips, commanding officer of the St Catherine South Police Division, says the police are following “strong leads” into the murder of veteran journalist Barbara Gayle.

Gayle, who was a veteran court reporter at the Jamaica Gleaner, was found dead at her Caymanas Country Club Estate home in St Catherine on Tuesday morning. Her vehicle and phone are missing.

READ: Caymanas residents remember Barbara Gayle as ‘nicest, sweetest neighbour’

Speaking to journalists at the crime scene, Phillips said based on initial assessments, Gayle “was stabbed multiple times to the right side of her neck and we suspect that she was also hit in the forehead.”

He said she was last seen with an “unknown gentleman” sometime after 3pm on Monday.

“Sometime after 10 (Tuesday) morning, residents who are used to her routine of coming out in the morning to check on them and call on them, they didn’t see that activity and went to check on her where her lifeless body was discovered,” Phillips disclosed.

The senior cop said the police are determined to solve case and already have several leads.

“We are following strong leads at this time. We have the full support of all the investigative arms of the force. We are deeply saddened by this. It’s really a very horrible scene and we extend condolences to the media family at this time,” Phillips said.

Meanwhile, the crime fighter used the opportunity to appeal to residents to be vigilant during the festive season.

“Based on what we are seeing so far, this could’ve been anyone else, so we just want to appeal to residents to be extremely vigilant,” Phillips said.

Phillips refused to state whether any protocols were breached in terms of security at the gated community, noting that the

“I wouldn’t want to get into critiquing whether or not any protocol was breached; on the surface of it is very worrying how things unfolded… as to how that person got in, we are going to allow the investigative process to unearth all of that and perhaps at another time we could give a full update as to what was uncovered,” he told reporters.

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