As family, friends and citizens struggle to accept the nature of the country’s latest murder, the Police have issued a formal caution against referring to the crime as a domestic violence case.
Speaking on the Observer AM show on Tuesday, Police Spokesman Inspector Frankie Thomas urged members of the public to be cautious, patient, and allow the investigation to take its full course, and desist from referring to the situation as a domestic violence case.
He explained that doing so is premature and reckless, can affect the family members of the victim and also have the possibility of negatively impacting the investigation.
He also confirmed that the investigations were progressing and the officials are currently interviewing individuals.
Counselling Psychologist Terese Millet-Joseph also re-iterated the sentiments of the Inspector Thomas saying “I think it is a good idea for us to get into the habit of using terms like gender-based violence, particularly where they are uncertain as to what type of violence exactly it was, because domestic violence is only one type of gender-based violence, and so I think broader conversations around gender-based violence in general would be a good idea rather than us getting in the habit of referring to every incident like this, as they are not always domestic violence incidents.”
On Sunday 5, December, news of Neltha Telemaque’s demise shook the nation, triggering widespread alarm. Soon, as expected, rumors began circulating. In the comment sections of several news posts, people could be seen giving their opinions and assumptions about what happened.
The statements were especially provoking towards the woman’s fiancé who had frantically reported her missing on social media just hours before her lifeless body was discovered near Burma Dump.
Later that same day, Kevin Samuel of All Saints surrendered to the Police, a few hours after a wanted bulletin was issued for him. However, no charges have been laid against him thus far.
A GoFundMe Page has been set up by the family of Neltha Telemaque’s to cover funeral costs.
You can Visit https://gofund.me.70b3ac58/ to donate.
