Long-time friend of Israels shocked to find dead bodies

The number of persons murdered for the year in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) spiked dramatically between 11 p.m. Sunday and 2 a.m. Monday, moving from 27 to 31 in less than four hours.

Monday, at around 9:10 a.m., Block 2000 resident Declon Lynch went to the home of his long-time friends Avis Israel and her son Ronald Israel.{{more}}

But what greeted Lynch was not the usual jovial and welcoming atmosphere associated with the Israel home, but a gruesome scene instead.

Lynch found Ronald on the floor of the veranda with his head smashed in and immediately went to get the police.

Reliving the nightmarish discovery, Lynch said that he was in Kingstown on his way to check for a job, when one of Avis’s daughters called him and asked him if he could go to Old Montrose to check on her mother.

“…on entering the gate, I saw Ronald Israel on the porch floor with his head smash open and a design baluster next to him,” recalled Lynch, who said that he felt that something was wrong even before he entered the yard, as when he emerged from the van that brought him to the Israel home, he observed that the glass of the sliding door was broken and he suspected that the house had been broken into.

He said that he is extremely saddened by the murders, as the Israels were his good friends and he would usually spend one to two hours every day with Avis, as she was like a second mother to him.

“Any help she want, I always here for her. When people kind to you, you can be kind back to them. I feel real mash up man, trust me. I feel real mash up to lose someone so close; it hurtful man,” said Lynch, who described the deceased mother and son as “humble people” whom he has known for over 10 years.

Avis, 75, was a retired nurse who worked with mentally ill persons, while Ronald was a mechanic.

According to police, the Israels are the 29th and 30th murders for 2016, as on Sunday, November 13, Nicholas Layne was killed in Campden Park, making him the 28th person murdered this year.

Also on Monday, at around 2 a.m., another retired nurse, Pamela Williams, 57, was murdered in her home at Kingstown Park, bringing the number of murders in 2016 to 31.

According to Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Clauston Francis, who is also deputy chief detective at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), when the police arrived on the scene, they discovered Ronald in the porch and Avis in the bedroom, both dead.

He said that the Israels died of significant head injuries and described the crime scene as “gruesome”.

ASP Francis noted that in the two other homicides, Layne was killed in the Cocoa Village, Campden Park public road and Williams, in the bedroom of her home at Kingstown Park. He said the incidents seem to be connected and that a man, Jurani Baptiste of Sandy Bay, has been detained in relation to the four murders.

“All we have at this moment is that the injuries are similar, very gruesome and the injuries are mainly to the heads of the victims, so we believe there are some modus operandi from those injuries,” said ASP Francis, who noted that the suspect (Baptiste) was met at the scene of Williams’ murder, so they believe that “he may have been involved one way or the other in that matter.”

Baptiste is currently warded at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH). He is nursing injuries sustained during a citizens’ arrest at Kingstown Park. (LC)