A 68-year-old retired teacher from Southern California, who was stabbed to death in Jamaica last week, was owed money by someone on the island and may have been in the country to retrieve the funds, according to a close friend of the deceased.
Heidi Ann Muth was found dead last Sunday along a dirt path in the upscale Coral Gardens neighbourhood near Montego Bay, St James. Police said Muth was stabbed in the head and upper body.
She was pronounced dead at hospital.
Muth, a widow with two sons and a daughter, had taught history at schools in California for 37 years.
It wasn’t immediately clear why Muth was in Jamaica.
However, Sarah Schiermeyer, who is described as a close friend of Muth, was reported by a California media house as saying that Muth told her she was owed money by someone in Jamaica.
“That would be enough for her to do down there,” Schiermeyer reportedly said in a phone interview with the Orange County Register on Saturday.
“Everyone said she was throwing good money after bad money. But Heidi would get a bee in her bonnet and was very stubborn about stuff. It’s absolutely horrid what happened to her,” Schiermeyer is quoted as saying.
As of Saturday, no arrests had been made in the case and a motive had not been determined.
