Murder victim tried to leave lover

Neighbours of 37-year-old Tamika Richards, whose body was found with stab wounds and the throat slashed on Sunday, said she had many fights with her boyfriend, who is now a person of interest in her murder.

Rhiyeme Woodhouse, 27, was given until yesterday by the police to turn himself in for questioning. Richards was reportedly trying to end their rocky relationship.

"A whole heap of fights, dem fight regular. This minute dem sour and the next minute them sweet," said Sharon Byfield, who lives on the ground floor of the two-storey building where Richards and her two sons occupy the upper floor. "She wanted him fi leave and him nah leave. She told him three weeks ago that she done because she can't bother with the whole heap a fuss and fight." Byfield's husband, Delroy, said the couple "fuss all the time".

Him come and go

"Him never live there, him come and go. When him come at night him bang on the door hard," he stated. Friends and neighbours who gathered at Richards' house on Sunday grieved openly and stressed that she did not deserve such a gruesome death.

It is reported that concerned neighbours went to Richards' home at 6:30 a.m. after failing to get in contact with her. They reported that they forced open her bedroom door to find her lying on her bed in a pool of blood with multiple stab wounds. Richards was taken to the Spanish Town Hospital where she was pronounced dead.