‘Helpless and crippled’
Family distraught after remains believed to be that of missing UTech student found
Published:Monday | May 19, 2025 | 12:08 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
On Saturday, Everton Dilworth received a dreaded phone call; he was being asked by the police to identify a key ring and a pair of sweatpants believed to belong to his daughter Anisa Dilworth, who disappeared on May 6.
That phone call shattered whatever optimism he had left, after almost two weeks of desperately holding on to hope that investigators would find his 20-year-old daughter alive.
“The emptiness that was within, it just got worse because me and Anisa, we share a tight bond. It’s like taking away most of me, leaving me helpless, crippled,” the distraught father told The Gleaner yesterday.
Dilworth said his daughter had just completed her first year at the University of Technology (UTech), pursuing a degree in pharmaceutical technology. Since it was her first time being away from their Montego Bay, St James home, they communicated frequently.
“We talked, like, three times, four time fi di day at minimum; even a simple ‘Hi’ and ‘Bye’, ‘How di exam?’, ‘Why yuh hair look like dat?’, stuff like dat,” he said.
Police reports are that about 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, they were alerted to the discovery of human skeletal remains on a beach in Portmore, St Catherine, and went to investigate. While formal identification is awaiting results from forensic analysis, the investigators believe the remains belong to Anisa based on evidence found at the scene.
ONGOING INVESTIGATION
An investigation into the circumstances surrounding her disappearance is ongoing as detectives pursue several leads, the police said.
A driver with ride-sharing service inDrive has been taken into custody and is facing questioning.
Head of the St Andrew Central Police Division, Superintendent Mark Harris, told The Gleaner last week that the ride-share driver was taken into custody on May 10. But no charges have been laid against him, as he continues to face questions from investigators.
“We have a man in custody, we have a car, and we are pursuing another person we believe can assist us with the investigation,” Harris said. He did not, however, disclose further information on the individual being sought.
Efforts by The Gleaner to get an update on the investigations were unsuccessful up to print time.
Dilworth shared that he and Anisa, who was the youngest of his three children, and the only girl, shared a close bond. In fact, he had a premonition that something was wrong on the day she went missing.
“Tuesday evening, I felt sick; [a] strange sickness, really strange. I went to work Tuesday night and I had to tell my co-workers that they need to manage the shift because I was really sick,” he said.
He said he tried calling her, but was not getting through. That same night, he sent a friend to look for her at her apartment in Papine, St Andrew, but she was not there. Early next morning, Dilworth said he asked the landlord to check on her, but she was nowhere to be found. By this time, he said, he was already on his way to Kingston from Montego Bay.
On arrival, he went searching for her at her apartment and on the university campus; when those efforts also proved futile, he made a missing person report at the Papine Police Station.
Dilworth said Anisa, a former student of Mount Alvernia High School in Montego Bay, was quiet but ambitious and strong-willed. She was the first of his children to attend university, and he was looking forward to celebrating the graduation milestone in a few years.
“In high school, she told me she wanted a driver’s licence. And she asked me for driving lessons. When she realised that the lessons were too far in between and not advancing at the rate she wants, she went ahead behind my back and found a driving school, attended the driving school, pass it (driving test)... . She only turned up one day and said, ‘Daddy, I need some money to pay the bills’,” he recalled fondly.
Stating that her entire family is devastated by her death, he revealed that he has yet to formally view the remains, as he is overwhelmed by fear from what he has seen online.
“It’s hard, it’s hard, but we are trying to stay strong,” he said.