‘We all love her’ - Residents shocked after 8-y-o found hanging in yard

Eight-year-old Jasmine Keeling liked to smile and was even given the nickname ‘Smiley’ because of it.

She had aspirations of being a nurse, and, on numerous occasions, could be seen at the gate inside her yard greeting passers-by and telling them how much she loved them.

But Jasmine will no longer warm the hearts of her loved ones with her contagious smile. Her body was found hanging on Saturday afternoon from a concrete column in her yard on Burke Road in Old Harbour, St Catherine. Head of the Corporate Communications Unit (CCU), Senior Superintendent of Police Stephanie Lindsay, stated that detectives are investigating. She also said that, for now, the matter is being treated as a “possible suspected suicide”. When THE STAR visited the home yesterday, a group of tearful persons sat on the verandah.

Extremely tight-lipped

Members of Jasmine’s immediate family were extremely tight-lipped, however, a woman who said she is a relative described the Davis Primary School student as a loving and joyful person.

“There are times when she will just see me and say ‘I love you’. Sometimes she will just stand at the gate and see people pass and say ‘How are you? I love you’. If you come here so now and she don’t know yuh, she would just win over your heart, the way she was loving and nice,” she said.

Similar sentiments were echoed by residents who all expressed shock at Jasmine’s passing. They described her as a wonderful child.

“Her mother loved her with everything she has. We all love her because that was just who Smiley was. She was very nice, she talk to everybody and she like to hug yuh up and greet you,” a resident said. The woman said she saw Jasmine just hours before her death as her mother sat combing her hair on the verandah.

“Her mom was combing her hair and she was crying and she was saying to her say ‘Jas it nuh so hot, yuh nuh have to a gwan so’. One of her little friends had also passed and call to her after but she didn’t answer and that was unlike her because normally she would run come to the gate and talk to her likkle friend. I don’t know what happened but I know that little girl was well taken care of and loved,” she said. Residents are confident that Jasmine did not willingly take her own life.

Some theorised that she may have been playing in the yard and got entangled and choked. They were also adamant that her family would never hurt her.

“Her family love her and wouldn’t do that. It was her mom who cut her down and yuh could see the pain whe she a go tru. She do everything to save her life and a beg her to wake up but Smiley never wake up,” another resident said.