KINGSTON, JAMAICA: Mother Of Six Beheaded - Mountain View Community Mourns; Father Of Four On The Run

Jamaica Observer/Published: Monday | February 17, 2014

Karen Rainford

The callous beheading of a mother of six, who was also chopped over her body, yesterday transformed the hardened community of Back Bush, Mountain View, into a mourning ground, with residents lamenting that this brand of brutishness was alien to them.

There was no stopping the tears and open condemnation after Karen Rainford, 34, was viciously attacked, allegedly by the father of four of her children, about 2:30 a.m. as the community slept.

The police say they are hunting for the father of the youngest four of Rainford's six children - ages 11, eight, five and three - known as Hopeton, who they believe can assist them in their probe.

It was Rainford's piercing screams that alerted residents. The attacker, suspected to have been lurking in the yard, after disconnecting a lit bulb, waited as he was reported to have been doing for months. Then he made his deadly move.

Residents claimed they had always thought the man was insane, as he sat in ominous silence on a mound for long periods, with a piece of rope near Rainford's home and vowed that he would eventually get at her.

Female residents told The Gleaner that he had been forced to leave the community after stabbing Rainford sometime ago and that Rainford, who was deathly afraid of him, kept her distance since the break-up.

The end came early yesterday morning without warning and much later than his 'vigils' in the community.

After inflicting multiple chop wounds to Rainford's body, he allegedly severed her head in the yard of the house in which she lived. more