Police at the Criminal Investigation Bureau in Black River, Jamaica, West Indies weren’t confirming or denying it Friday night, but a Bronx woman told PIX11 she was notified by a Jamaican relative that her 45-year-old mother was murdered in the St. Elizabeth section of the island.
The daughter said her mom’s body has been laying in the morgue since last Saturday, March 3, when it was found.
“Someone strangled her with like a rope,” Diona Pryce said of her mother, a former certified nursing assistant who lived half the year in the Bronx. Pryce identified her mother as Dorrette Coke Lawson, known to most friends as Karen.
“She had $600 in U.S. money that was stolen, some Jamaican money, and just her cell phone,” Pryce said. “She had so much jewelry and valuables in the house, and that’s all they took.”
If the mother of three daughters is formally identified, it will mark the second New Yorker murdered in Jamaica in the last several months.
The other victim was 26-year-old Desiree Gibbon of Queens, New York.
Gibbon’s beaten body was discovered off a road near Montego Bay in late November, in the northern part of Jamaica.
Diona Pryce said her mom had started building a “dream house” in the southwestern section of the island just over ten years ago, but there was always a feud about the property she had bought.
“She bought her land and started building a house on it,” Diona Pryce said. “She had her paperwork and everything, her deed!”
When she started building the home, around 2007, Coke Lawson met with violence when she arrived to visit her own mother, according to Pryce. She said an armed robber stopped her mom’s taxi, before it reached the driveway of her grandmother’s home. She said the bandit shot Dorrette Coke Lawson, when she didn’t give up her money and jewelry right away.
Coke Dawson didn’t return to Jamaica for two and a half years, according to her oldest daughter.
“I think it’s just jealousy from everybody,” Pryce said. “They just didn’t want her to be happy.”
Pryce said Dorrette Coke Lawson had emigrated to the United States when she was 12 years old and became a U.S. citizen. She later worked at a domestic violence shelter and nursing homes as a cook and certified nursing assistant. But she longed to build a home in Jamaica. After she was shot, Coke Lawson received Social Security Disability and other benefits, according to her daughter.
“When we were young, back in our teenage days, we used to go to Jamaica for Christmas and stay through New Years,” Pryce remembered. “Everything was always fine.”
Now, Pryce said she was having a hard time getting information from Jamaican authorities. She said she was told her uncle would be going to the morgue Friday.
PIX11 News contacted the Nain Police Station in Jamaica before we were directed to call the Criminal Investigation Bureau in the Black River District. The first person who answered the phone at Black River said he wasn’t familiar with the case. Then a female supervisor got on the phone and told PIX11 she wasn’t telling us anything, because she didn’t know us.
She then stated “I can neither confirm nor deny anything.”
What a sad tale. The women never got to enjoy the fruits of her labour, look at how young she was too. This world is a sad place at times. I hope the sisters can stay close and just be there for each other. Hope they can one day find peace. They are likely still all very young. Gosh!
So sad Diona I feel for you no one should lose their mommy so young and I see your Facebook post trying to uplift yourself joking and keeping up in good spirits. No should lose their mom to violence. Some Jamaican people are so jealous and bad mine she was a CNA for crying out loud she wasn’t rich . She work hard for her money and slowly build her dream house. Diona said on her Facebook she feels it was a jealous family member . They need to work and stop rob and kill people . Shit pisses me off . The woman bend her back working hard to build a house for her and her daughters and badmine people killl her for what . Y’all aint getting her house or land haters her daughters getting that shit so you kill her for what nothing at all damn shame . RIP Karen . That could of beeen my mom I’m so pissed
This is sad. But this sound like family foolishness. When you get involved with family land, previously captured land etc it can be tricky and deadly.
Another black eye for Jamaica. People can’t even enjoy the fruits of their labor!
the sound like is her own family set her up. Which is sad.
This sound like is her own family set her up or it could be that as to why she was shot in the Bronx
Wishy washy. No end or middle and what pix11 for? Girl get on a plane and go take care of the matter! you have foreign local news putting the story out there with no facts.
THE SIGNS WERE THERE…….from dem rob my granny…in the taxi an no one held for it.. the bo weivel wanted no one from farrin there, they tell us all the while tan up deh an gi we yasso free.. if demm no fac you dem send dem friend
CARMEIA CARMEIA,, When dem kill u eena the house you people a farin no waaaant it ..can never be comfy in there, cant sleep a night a rass claat for fear of the unknown, therem memba the boxer from Portland, and the couple lived in canada for 50 years just 3 of the many
Wtf are you saying you making no sense English please . And another thing diva why you don’t fly to Jamaica immediately Kevin gave you money why you put up gofundme so quick asking for help with flights book a flight with the money Kevin gave you and leave your daughter London with him and go figure this shit out you claim to know is who go get justice for you mom
Death by Strangulation is usually someone close to the victim, so sad. RIP lady and condolences to her children. To the perp..cause we know yuh a peep..Di lady neva plan fi dead but yuh kill har, and sure as night follow day, your death is on the way, I hope dem don’t even find yuh body fi bury ole scum.
Carmeia pick a side please u is just one mix up Bitch
Rip Beauty, very sad, Jamaica the land we LOVE, smh. Things r outta control, these people are the true meaning of lego beast, unruly demons. The demon that kill this lady fi wan dead and can’t dead, may your remaining days be hell on earth. So sick of the senseless deaths, they kill for little and nothing. I hope the family find the clarity they need. God be with you all
CARMIEA .are u Jamaican, wuk wid it no talk fck bout English, go dung deh go talk but English and pay for it when dem move to you, patwa u better understand gwan go peaky pokey an see, try it nuh a u dem want, You are out of touch with what’s goin on, A LAST MONTH MI FLY THE COOP, HONEY U KNO WA NAME COOP? LOL, AS I WAS SAYING…. IF DEM KILL U FAMILY IN THE HOUSE WOULD U BE COMFORTABLE IN THERE? CARMIEA A STONE AGE U FROM,? YET U KNO PPL BIZ
You sound so dumb .If somebody kill my family in my house I would still go live there are you crazy it’s them house so because someone was killed in there you would just up and leave . You would seriously abandon all that hard work,money , blood , sweat & tears and never look back your obviously not serious cause that don’t make no damn sense. There mom work hard for that house and it belongs to her and them so it’s theres and they shouldn’t let that make them want to leave or demolish it . Sweety I’m in my early 20s and I only know people business because these people talk their business loose lipped and show it on social media if you must know I ain’t no damn genie .
I agree with anon Carmia that is Ja you can’t go there to stay in that house without backitive. You affi go visit and try find out information. Like you said you’re in you’re early 20s so mi kinda understand. Ja a nuh forrin me dear. You affi stay wide and do yuh ting. Next ting dem set u up and kill u in that same house.