Missing Old Harbour man in coma for weeks

Family members of Richie Baxter, 28, a resident of New Harbour Village II here in Old Harbour, became increasingly concerned after being unable to make contact with him since November 18, 2019.

The fact is, though, Baxter has been in the hospital since November 21, as a result of an apparent hit and run. The incident left the young man, who lives alone, in a coma in intensive care for roughly a month during which he was transferred from the Spanish Town Hospital to the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH).

During all this Karlene McLean, Baxter’s sister who lives in Canada could not sleep in peace and was literally doing everything she can to find her brother, who she spoke to three days before he went missing in action.

With no meaningful answers coming forward McLean booked a one-way ticket to Jamaica with hope of finding her brother dead or alive. She arrived in her native country on Christmas day and immediately hit the ground running.

Checks at the island’s prisons, detention centres and even morgues all proved futile.

But McLean was not about to give up. At this point she called on friends to ‘pull a few strings’ higher up the command chain of the police hierarchy, as she was unsatisfied so far with the efforts of those at the lower level after a formal missing person report was filed on December 17.

Within 48 hours she said she received a call from a police investigator, who advised her that he will be leading the charge to find her brother.

On 28th December a missing person report for Richie Baxter was put out to the public via the media, and by the following day, the family received some good news.

Baxter’s surgeon at KPH had seen the report in the media and contacted the investigator.

“After so long we were expecting the worse but we are really glad that we found him alive,” McLean told Old Harbour News in an exclusive interview.

McLean has been trying to contact her brother from December 2 as it was unusual not hearing from him for so long.

“I started to get worried from about December 3 because all calls placed to Richie’s phone went straight to voicemail,” she recounted.

She reached out to Richie’s brother who lives in Montego Bay who told her they spoke “last month” which was November.

“I called a friend who has a key to the house because my concern was he might fall down in the house,” she said.

When the friends got to the house Baxter was not there but his mobile phone was on the bed and there were no signs any foul play.

“At this time I said ‘this is getting serious we need to file a missing person report’. His brother in MoBay (Montego Bay, St James) could not get away from work until December 17 but he kept saying ‘he’s OK, he’s OK’.

“So he was able to come down on December 17 and file a missing person report at the Old Harbour Police Station. We called all the jail houses, we called some of the state of emergency detention centres and they all said they had nobody by the name of Richie Baxter there. With all that’s happening in Jamaica we started to get worried. We really started to fear the worse,” she admitted.

They went in person to all the nearby police stations and detention centres, as soon as she landed, even though they had made enquiries already via telephone.

But after pulling a few strings up the police hierarchy “an hour after that an investigator called my brother David and started investigating the case”.

“With that they publicized the missing person report on TV and in the local media. So from it was filed on December 17 nothing was done until the 28th December.

“We then got a call from the police investigator (on the 29th December) saying the doctor that had operated on him called from KPH and said that he is there,” a relieved McLean stated.
After being updated by the doctors, McLean said her brother had undergone surgery to his trachea (windpipe).

According to McLean she has been informed by the doctor that it was the police who brought her brother the hospital. During her search, no report of a hit and run was on file at either the Old Harbour or Spanish Town police stations.

“I spoke to the doctors yesterday and today (Sunday and Monday) and they said it’s the best he has been. He was in ICU for two weeks at least before surgery was performed on his windpipe,” she said of her brother, who does gardening for a living. 

“He’s conscious now but unable to communicate,” she continued. “He’s likely to remain hospitalized for a long time due to other injuries. He has an open wound in his lower back where his tailbone is exposed and I think that’s what causing the problem right now because it cannot be closed up with stiches.

“But he’s able to move his hands, he’s able to recognize us. When we turned up Sunday (December 29) he was so happy to see us he started crying.”

While all are happy that Baxter is alive, of special interest to everyone now is to know what really transpired on November 21. But we all must now wait with bated breaths until he’s able to speak.