Body of three-year-old girl fished from sea; police hunting father
Leashay Thomas, remembered by her teacher as a very bright little child.
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Some residents of Flower Hill in this western parish openly expressed their anger yesterday when they learnt that a three-year-old girl from the community was found dead and her father was being sought by the police.
Police said that the body of the little girl, Leashay Thomas, was found early in the morning on the popular Dump Up Beach, hours after receiving a distress call from a relative of the child.
According to the police, on Monday night, a man, purporting to be the father of the child, called a family member to say that he was going to commit suicide as he had killed Leashay and threw her body in the sea at the popular Montego Bay beach.
A police spokesman said shortly after officers were dispatched to the beach to investigate the report but returned to their base after coming up ‘empty-handed’ after an extensive search of the shoreline. However, upon their return to the area yesterday morning they spotted the body of a child which was subsequently fished from the sea. It was later identified as that of Leashay. They were yesterday awaiting the results of a post mortem to determine the cause of the little girl’s death.
Police last night appealed for the public’s assistance in finding the whereabouts of the child’s father, Roosevelt Thomas, alias ‘Timmy’, whom they said could assist them with the investigations. Police alleged that Thomas, a resident of Flanker in the parish, took Leashay from her home in Flower Hill on Monday evening.
They said the death of the little girl was being treated as an infanticide, until proven otherwise.
Meanwhile, there was a sombre mood yesterday at the Salt Spring Primary and Infant School where Leashay was a student. She was described by her teacher, Zena Bailey, as a jovial individual.
“She is always playing and smiling. She is full of life and to see her gone at this stage of her life is really sad. It is really sad,” the distraught teacher said.
“I am going to miss her and I pray that the family of Leashay will get through this. We need to support them. Leashay was very bright little child. [She was] bubbly, playful [and] a little mischievous at times, but that’s how children are. I love her and it is really sad.”
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This had all the signs of an ugly ending but still hard to understand let alone accept. I do hope he follows up on the latter part of his is threat/promise. Then again how much “good” will that do..
Condolences to the child’s family, may her young soul rest in peace… I pray that God brings healing to the family through their grieving process… I hope the police find this child’s father, what was this man thinking to end his own child’s life because his life not right… Why would he do that, does it have anything to do with the mother was he upset with her, were they arguing because if any of that was the cause he wouldn’t of never had the chance to remove my child from her home over my dead body… He is heartless person who needs to be dealt with, kill your own flesh and blood… Sh*t kill yourself and move on why you had to include your child in the process and the bastard didn’t even kill himself after him do it, his a coward and need to be dealt with accordingly justice for this little princess is a must, him can’t hide forever, he will seek help from some family member and I hope they turn his a** in to the authorities…
Hear my cry O Lord! Attend unto my prayer! I ask of thee Heavenly Father to please protect the young children from their own parents! Some of these “parents'” IQ is much lower than their age. We are also fully aware that there are way too much mentally ill people, and too few mental illness facilities in the island of Jamaica. So please Lord, intervene, intervene, and intervene some more!
Thank You Lord that Thy will, WILL be done. In Your Precious Name I pray. Amen and Amen.
I can’t even… Lord lay your hand on all the souls aching over the loss of this toddler. Give them the strength to make it through this senseless tragedy.
We strongly condemned all acts violence and terror against our women and children.Harming a child should be automatically punishable by slow painful death!!r.i.p lil angel.