MONEY USED TO LURE WIFE TO HER DEATH? — Cops now hunting woman's husband

The Greater Portmore police are investigating whether Oneisha Thompson-Butler, the mother of a child who died after she was allegedly subjected to punishment at school, was lured to her death with the promise of money.

Cops are now hunting Oneisha's husband, Stephen Butler.

“He is not in our custody at this time. He is on the run. He allegedly told persons that he was going to kill himself,” Detective Inspector Homer Morgan told THE STAR.

The investigating officer told THE STAR that Butler allegedly managed to lure his wife away from a group who went to the beach, telling her he had some money to give her.

“When they couldn’t find her, they called her phone and he answered. He told them what he did,” Morgan added.

THE STAR also tried to get in contact with Stephen Butler on the cell phone that was used to contact him previously, but all calls to that number went unanswered. 

Oneisha, who recently got a job as a bartender, and her two young children were a part of a group of people from Gregory Park, St Catherine, who went to Hellshire Beach to celebrate Emancipation Day. That was when tragedy struck.

Before Thompson-Butler went on the trip, Althea Hooke, 51, who has been guiding Thompson-Butler since she turned up to the community confused with her two kids, warned her not to meet with her husband.

“Him call her and tell her him have money to give to her, and when she leave mi say, 'Neisha, you sure him nah go do you nothing?', and she say 'him nah do mi nutten',” Hooke told THE STAR.

She said that Thompson-Butler assured her that, “Him a go give me the money. Him sound calm, so him nah go do mi nutten.”

Oneisha ran away from the house where she lived with her husband near the Hellshire Beach in St Catherine some three months ago. 

Melissa Walker, 35, told THE STAR that she allowed Thompson-Butler and her two children to stay at her house in Gregory Park, St Catherine. That was until the shocking death of the woman whose family was thrusted into the nation's eyes following the untimely death of her daughter. 

The Corporate Communication Unit of the Jamaica Constabulary Force said Thompson-Butler’s body was found in bushes close to a public sanitary convenience at the beach around 4 p.m. Tuesday. The Greater Portmore police told THE STAR that her husband, Stephen Butler, is now being sought for questioning.

Oneisha and Stephen are the parents of eight-year-old Kemeisha Butler, a former student of Port Henderson Primary School, who died at the Bustamante Hospital For Children on March 8, 2016. Her parents claimed that her death was linked to punishment which she got at school. The Office of the Children’s Advocate and the education ministry have since launched probes into the matter.

Following the death of Kemeisha, our news team assisted in creating an avenue where the Butlers, who had no national identification cards, were able to receive funds from donors all across the world to assist in burying Kemeisha.

In June, shortly before Father’s Day, Stephen contacted our newsroom and reported that his wife ran away with the two remaining children and allegedly destroyed some of his belongings.

He expressed concern for the children’s safety, and told THE STAR that he already lost one child and did not intend to have the others taken from him.

Our news team gathered that Thompson-Butler told several persons that following the death of Kemeisha, the man she knew since she ran away from state care, became very abusive.