Missing disc jockey found dead

The two-month search for missing selector Ricardo ‘ZJ Rick’ Thomas ended at St Michaels Funeral Home in St Ann, yesterday.

The 31-year-old’s body was identified by his sister, Shelliann Thomas, who told THE STAR that it never once crossed her mind that her brother would be found dead.

His father, Denzel Thomas, however, said that although he tried to remain optimistic, he had a gut feeling that his son would not be found alive.

“He would never leave his personal belongings, such as his laptop and other things. He used to be all over the place because of his selecting job, but he would keep in contact with his family or even visit his one-year-old daughter,” Thomas said.

A policeman at the Ocho Rios Police Station said that the disc jockey’s body was found with gunshot wounds in the area on December 15. However, the body remained unidentified until yesterday.

Thomas said that he last saw and spoke to his son in December. He stated that his family did not realise he was missing until New Year’s Day, when his aunt realised that he had not returned home.

Gotten into an altercation

“He also worked as a security, so he left for work on December 14 and died the following day. He lived with is aunt in Oracabessa, but she went overseas on the 16th of December. It was when she returned to Jamaica that she realised that he did not return home as the place was still the way she had last left it. The unfinished biscuit that he was eating was still there, and his laptop bag was still home,” Thomas said.

The distraught father said he was told by his son’s friends that Ricardo played at a dance just hours before his death and may have gotten into an altercation with someone at a bus stop when he was killed.

ZJ Rick was killed just blocks away from his former home in Ocho Rios. His close friend, Sandra Philpotts, said that in December, she was told that a stranger from Kingston was killed at a bus stop, and she never once thought it was her former ‘son-in-law’.

“He used to live with me, and he was very honest. We all loved him, and he came to visit us the night before he was killed. He had promised to play at our party, but when he didn’t show up, we just thought he was busy. However, when he dreamed my daughter and told her he was very cold, we all became very concerned and decided to put up fliers on social media. I really never thought he would die like this. He was a good person,” she said.