‘She nuh mek trouble’ - Family, friends shocked at St Catherine woman’s murder

When she answered the phone, one could automatically tell that Ann-Marie Dale was not in the best of moods.

Dale is in mourning after her big sister, 56-year-old Joycelyn 'Longee' Gidden, was murdered in Christian Pen, St Catherine, on Wednesday.

"I was in my bed when me get the news, and oh, God, man. Me bawl out, 'Longee,' because me couldn't believe," she said. "Me just deh yah a drink some rum so me brain nuh overload because it nuh real. How somebody fi kill my sister and she nuh make trouble? If you talk too hard to her, she hiss her teeth and go home. She and everybody a friend; she nuh make trouble or look war," Dale said. She revealed that she shared a great relationship with Gidden and remembered her sister as being very kind.

A CRY FOR HELP

"Anything at all me need, from me say, 'Longee', and she can help, a she that," Dale said. "Right now, it just hurt me how she dead. She never deserve it. God know, a somebody that speak peace at all times." Reports are that in the early hours of Wednesday, Gidden's neighbours heard a cry for help coming from her dwelling and alerted the police. When the lawmen arrived, Gidden's body was found with what appeared to be stab wounds.

Colleen Thomas, 56, Gidden's neighbour and best friend since childhood, saw her mere hours before the tragedy.

"She cook rice and sumpn in the night, and all a we sit down and eat. Everything was well," she said. "So this come like a shock to me say she dead. All now, me a see her same way in front of me, and it hard fi accept because she nuh make trouble." Thomas, who has been friends with Gidden for more than 50 years, said she was a genuine soul.

"All my life, me and her a friend, and me can remember me mother have one room, and me and her sleep pon the floor. Me a tell you about a down-to-earth person who love everybody," she said. "If Longee a cook, she nuh cook pound a rice because she have to share for somebody else to get."

Yesterday, it was reported that homicide detectives had identified a suspect in connection with the murder.