THE man believed to be behind the gruesome Christmas Day killing of his girlfriend, who was found with her throat slashed in St Thomas, has reportedly left a note behind in which he claimed his relationship problem was driving him crazy and threatened to end his life.
“[Away with] life; people treat me [badly], so by ending my life will be the best thing to do. Now my girlfriend … takes me for the biggest [idiot]. She [does] what she wants any time she wants. I can’t take this… anymore. It’s driving me mad so I want to die to be free. Life goes on,” read a note, which was written in red ink on the wall inside the one-room bedroom where the victim, Tashoy Barrett, otherwise called “Shamy”, had lived with her 29-year-old lover Odaine Keyes, who is being sought by the police.
Barrett, 19, student of Arcadia in the parish, was found lying face down in a pool of blood on the floor of her spouse’s home at Grayston in the parish, on Monday, December 26 about 12:30 pm. She was found dead by friends who went looking for her when they could not reach her by phone.
Keyes has since fled the area but has been asked by police to turn himself in for questioning.
Yesterday, when the Observer visited the community the residents, who were shocked by Barrett’s death, were in a sombre mood as they tried to come to terms with her passing.
Residents alleged that Barrett’s lover was extremely jealous and felt that she was cheating on him with her former lover.
A woman who gave her name only as Debbie, cousin of the deceased, cried while looking at video of Barrett. And another member of the community who identified herself as Shanique, said that the young woman’s death put a damper on Christmas celebrations in the area.
“It pull up the community bad, sleepless and eatless nights and wi fraid. The two of dem and me talk good. Mi never expect that from him and him could come and talk to me if him have a problem or find some elderly person,” Debbie added.
“Right now everybody a have nightmare, including me, who never look on her body; so you can imagine all who did go look,” Shanique said.
“Why, why? Sham no live nuh life yet, she a teenager. She want go out and enjoy herself. Why him want she fi cloak up inna the house like she old? Why him never just leave har?” Barrett’s mother Stephanie Harris-Barrett said as she fought hard to hold back the tears.
“This no fi happen to Sham; mi no care what, she no deserve to die so,” she added.
Barrett’s father Kenneth said he thought his daughter and her boyfriend who she was with for a year were having a good relationship, as no one told him anything.
“Is after everything now mi a hear [of problems in the relationship],” he said, adding that he had warned his daughter to report any problems to him.
“Mi see it every day on TV but a when it reach you doorstep you really feel it,” he said. “You can imagine fi see you son or daughter on the floor [and] a man cut dem throat?”
The distraught father said if he had known of the problems his daughter had been having, she would probably still be alive today. He urged individuals who are aware of problems between couples not to turn a blind eye, but to intervene before it is too late.
