Cops suspect dog severed farmer’s head after natural death

WESTERN BUREAU:

The St James police have ruled out murder in the death of 74-year-old Maroon Town farmer Anthony ‘Tony’ Thompson, whose body was found with the head detached. Instead, they now suspect that it was a case of his dog interfering with his body after he had died of natural causes.

In giving an update on the crime situation in St James at last Thursday’s meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC), Senior Superintendent of Police Eron Samuels said the death, which happened on the night of September 9, was initially mischaracterised as a case of murder.

“As it relates to that incident in Maroon Town, we have it as a sudden death. Based on the evidence that we saw, it is not a murder as the gentleman seems to have died and was in that place with his dog for a couple of days,” Samuels, the head of the St James Police Division, told the meeting. “While I do not want to get into too much detail, it seems like the dog had evidence on him. I do not want to get into too much detail with what transpired.”

He was responding to a question from Anthony Swaby, councillor for the Maroon Town division, who said an update on the investigation was necessary in order to address concerns in the community.

“I think there is still a lingering aspect of whether it was a matter of the person being murdered or of the body being decayed and having the head to be separated from the body,” Swaby said in seeking an answer from Samuels. “I think we want to reassure our citizens, and it would be good if we could get some feedback into how that investigation is going, to get them an update.”

However, despite the explanation from Samuels, Thompson’s sister, Greta Ennis, told The Gleaner that she and her relatives would still wait for the forensic report to conclusively state the cause of her brother’s death even as the family makes preparations for his funeral.

“I am dying to get the forensic report because we cannot do anything until we get it. The family abroad wants to know what is happening so that they can reach here, and we cannot do anything until we hear from the authorities. The sooner we get the report, the sooner we can decide when we can get our arrangements together,” said Ennis.

Thompson’s remains were discovered by relatives at his farm in Chatsworth district in Maroon Town on September 12, three days after he was last seen.

In the meantime, Samuels told councillors that St James had recorded 51 murders up to last Thursday, six more than over the corresponding period in 2025, and that domestic issues and interpersonal conflicts continued to drive the majority of the murders.

“Approximately 60 per cent of our murders so far since the start of the year have been interpersonal and domestic in nature.

“As it relates to our operational activities, we are ramping those up to ensure that, for the rest of the year, we keep the numbers low,” he said. “We still intend to try and finish below or equal to last year’s figure (58), which, by our standards, was a 30-year low in murders.”

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com