Eunice Chambers has taken refuge in the United States, refusing to “see or hear” in court Robert Fowler, the man who in 2021 murdered her 20-year-old daughter Khanice Jackson and dumped her body in a ditch at the side of a road in St Catherine in what Jackson’s stepmother labelled an act of “senseless savagery”.

“I am still not used to the fact that she is really gone from our lives because she was just 20 years old at the time she was killed,” a seemingly conflicted Chambers said while stating that she would, at some point, want “to speak to Robert Fowler, to stand and look at him directly, to say and ask him a few things”.

Jackson, a resident of Independence City in Portmore, St Catherine, went missing on March 24, 2021 after leaving home for work. Her body was found in a ditch on Dyke Road in St Catherine two days later. Shortly after, Fowler, with whom she had travelled to work at times, was arrested and charged.

Chambers’ heartache over the slaughter of her only child was expressed in one of three victim impact statements read into the records of the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston during a sentencing hearing for Fowler before Justice Leighton Pusey on Thursday.

“In all honesty, Eunice despises Mr Fowler, who killed her daughter, and does not want to see him in court nor hear anything from him,” a niece of Chambers said in the statement. According to the niece, Jackson’s mom, who is currently in the United States with family, has no planned return date to Jamaica.

“She has told me that she cannot visit Khanice’s graveside since the funeral because she has nightmares to this present day due to the graphic nature and state of decomposition her [daughter’s] body was found in, and she cannot look at Khanice’s picture without getting extremely sad and emotional,” the court was told.

She said Chambers had experienced sleeping problems and countless sleepless nights since her daughter’s murder and “has lost a lot of weight due to the murder”.

“Khanice was Eunice’s only child and they were extremely close, so the murder has taken everything from her mentally, emotionally and physically. Khanice’s death has caused Eunice to mainly stay in the United States because she cannot stay in her house alone due to Khanice not being there anymore,” the court heard.

She said Chambers has spoken of flashbacks, even while she battles regret as she had planned to meet with her daughter for lunch the day she went missing and had wanted to share something with her. According to the niece, Chambers has been suffering from guilt over the lunch date falling through as she had been the one to postpone similar plans for the Tuesday before because of work commitments.

Jackson’s father Roy, who resides abroad, in his statement, said his daughter’s death was the worst that could happen to any parent.

“It has affected me greatly where I feel pain and agony every day. I have nightmares with the death of my daughter from time to time. It has made me feel very emotional from time to time where I have cried a lot in front of my wife and sons, also in the public whenever I speak with friends,” he said.

Jackson’s stepmother, in her statement, said while the two-year wait for the matter to be dealt with might have made it so that it does not trigger the same degree of anger as it had initially, this did not “change the nature of the crime”.

“A rope is still a rope, this was not an accidental death,” she said, adding that the crime, which has inflicted “untold, everlasting pain” on the family, was an act of “senseless savagery and brutality”.

“You have proven and confessed your ability to take the life of another human being… this vile act must never be allowed to be repeated,” she said.

A senior prosecutor outlining the facts in brief said Fowler, a mechanic, and Jackson, an accounting clerk, had met on a bus in 2020. He said Fowler would often see Jackson at her bus stop in Portmore awaiting transportation to work and would sometimes pick her up and take her to work in his private motor car. He said eventually this became the norm.

“For all intents and purposes, it seemed as just a courtesy that he was extending to Miss Jackson. He would sometimes even wait on her at the bus stop if he was passing and she had not yet arrived,” the court was told.

The prosecutor said prior to the date of Jackson’s disappearance Fowler had not transported her to work for two weeks as he had to be at work earlier than his usual time.

He said on the fateful day, Jackson left her residence sometime around 7:00 am and headed for her bus stop, which was recorded by closed circuit television cameras. A car matching the description of Fowler’s was seen in the vicinity at the time, according to a neighbour.

Fowler, by his own admission, said on the day in question he had picked up Jackson on Passage Fort Drive in Portmore. He said during the journey a disagreement developed between them over a promise he had made three weeks prior to give her money to buy something for her boyfriend’s birthday. He claimed he had reneged on the promise because he was under pressure at work and things had been hard for him.

He said the argument continued and he then turned his car around and told her to take a bus to work. Fowler claimed that he then parked the vehicle on the road to Caymanas, climbed from his seat to the back seat of the car, drew Jackson over and strangled her until he “saw froth coming from her mouth and she had stopped moving”.

He then drove the vehicle with her body to Forum Fishing Village where he bound the hands and feet and left the body in an abandoned building. About 7:30 that same evening he went back for the body, placed it in his vehicle and took it to Dyke Road where he left it in a ditch. The following morning he took her handbag to the market in Cross Roads, St Andrew, where he emptied the contents into a garbage bin.

When Jackson did not return home that evening a missing person report was made by her mother, who had also discovered that her daughter had not turned up for work.

Her decomposing body was discovered on the Dyke Road on March 26. Fowler was apprehended at his workplace that same day and taken into custody after Jackson’s mother named him as a possible suspect. Fowler gave a caution statement in the presence of an attorney, admitting to strangling the young woman. A medical examination revealed scratch marks on Fowler’s shoulders.

A post-mortem report said Jackson’s cause of death was neck compression and that the body had signs of blunt impact trauma. When Fowler’s home was searched, a handbag with personal items belonging to Jackson along with a chamois cloth with blood, duct tape, and rope were found, while a cardboard with blood stains was found in his car.

On Thursday, a now-heavily bearded and balding Fowler, his hairline flecked with grey — clad in a blue shirt, black short pants and black and white plastic slippers — sat inert in the dock, his hands clasped atop his knees, his eyes seemingly closed under deeply furrowed brows, for the duration of the hearing.

Fowler who pleaded guilty on March 8 this year is to be sentenced on May 4.