'Turn yourself in' - Seventh-day Adventists urge murder suspect

Officials within the Seventh-day Adventist church are urging the person of interest in the murder of a woman in Manchester to turn himself over to the police.

Police are currently searching for a deacon in the church, Linton Stephenson, aka Jaw Bone, in connection with the murder of 25-year-old Khyhymn Campbell.

Pastor Everett Brown, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica, condemned the murder and appealed to Stephenson to immediately turn himself over to the police.

According to police reports, Campbell's body was found in an igloo on the Winston Jones Highway in Manchester on August 28; her throat was slashed.

INHUMANE

Also condemning the killing is Nigel Coke, communication, public relations and religious director of the Jamaica Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, who said that the act is inhumane. He said he hoped that the person responsible would face the full length of the law.

Coke said that he has personally met Stephenson but was told that he took up the role of deacon in January and would often collect the tithes and offering and perform other duties for the church.

"I felt extremely bad about it. It is something that no one in the church would want to see or hear, but what I would say is that the situation has been an eye-opener to how we look on people," he said. Coke said the incident provides an opportunity to examine and re-examine persons who would want to "come into our church and be servants".

He added that the church takes the responsibility of minimising the risk of violence and sexual abuse against individuals, especially children, seriously.