Cops could have saved my child - Mom of dead St Ann teen slams police for slow response

Lavern Morgan, the mother of 14-year-old Raven Wilson who was found bound and her throat slashed at Top Road, St Ann's Bay, is angry that the police did not move faster to find her daughter.

The St Ann's Bay police reported that at about 6:30 a.m. yesterday residents discovered Wilson's body and summoned them.

Upon their arrival, the body of the teen was seen in a garbage bag with her throat slashed.

The scene was processed, and the body was removed to the morgue for post-mortem examination.

Morgan told THE STAR that Wilson left the house at about 6:30 a.m. last Friday morning for school, and that was the last time she was seen alive.

She said that she alerted the police at bout 6 p.m. that same day, but they seemed unmoved by her daughter's disappearance.

"She woulda normally pick up her niece and come home by 2, but when mi nuh see har me get worried, and me mek a report to the station. Dem come and search the house to see if she did take anything, but she didn't because me know she never run weh," she said.

She said that the family members started searching for Wilson because they did not believe the police saw it as an urgent matter.

"Dem drive round Ochi and look, and that was it," Morgan said.

Wilson's godmother, Kadian Dickenson, told THE STAR that they got a tip as to where the child may have been on Saturday at about 3 p.m. and they told the police about it. However, they claim the police's reaction to the tip was very slow.

MISSING PERSON'S REPORT

"Someone told us that she was last seen in the presence of a girl and she may be at her house, so we went to police to say that. A nuh till in the night the police go a the house, and when they went, the people them refuse to let the police in. Dem leave and not even go back. In a case like this weh someone missing, how people refuse to let police in and police nuh do nothing? Mi nuh understand that," she said.

Senior Superintendent of Police Michael Smith, who in charge of St Ann Police Division, told THE STAR that when a missing person's report is made, the police would do their initial enquiry, and based on the information received, they would start an immediate investigation.

He said that if the police did go to the house and were not allowed in, a team would have been left on standby while they get a search warrant.

Since Wilson's body was discovered early yesterday, Dickenson said that the family has been distraught.

She said that since Friday, she has not eaten, and she is very weak and stressed about what has happened.

"I believe that if the police dem did move faster and move like them interested she would be alive and with us today," Dickenson said.

Before the gruesome discovery, Dickenson made a desperate call to Betty Ann Blaine, founder of Hear The Children's Cry. Blaine said that she is saddened by the incident because only a day after she got a call from the child's godmother, she heard the unfortunate news.

"We have to ask the question of who cares? Do we really care about the protection of our children because when you look over the last couple of months, the number of children that are murdered and the way they have been murdered is very gruesome," she said.