Mom wishes for daughter’s return

For Sandra Smythe, the only Christmas gift she wants is to be reunited with her daughter Jahniel Bailey, who has been missing for almost three months.

The 35-year-old went missing in September after leaving home in Whitehall, Westmoreland, for a nearby shop to get something to eat. According to Superintendent Robert Gordon, commanding officer of the Westmoreland Police Division, Bailey was last seen by a fisherman at West End in Negril.

"I'm just looking, wishing and holding in faith that I see her come through the gate," said Smythe, 55. "Yesterday I was here sitting down and I asked one of my grandsons what is the date, and he told me and right there I said 'my God, Christmas is only a few days away and my daughter is not here'." Smythe said Bailey would spend every Christmas with her.

"Even when the other children and kids go out to like Grand Market, she stays in with me. She would cook, we sit, talk and watch a movie but she is not here so Christmas not even feel happy again,' she said as her voice trembled. "I don't hear anything from the police so I'm thinking they haven't found her or hear anything, but whenever I think of it tears come to my eyes and I just have hold it." Bailey's sister, Nicara Robinson, said the spirit of Christmas is virtually non-existent.

"My sister is always here for Christmas and we bond and have a good family time but now is like everybody is just tense and worried," she said. "My mother is just hoping that my sister come home for Christmas. She pray night and day. All 3 o'clock in a morning she a cry out. Right now me have her (Bailey) picture on my bed. Every night me sleep and pray and ask God to return her home."