Teacher’s killers charged after murder confession

They are 20-year-old Eladio ‘Shortman’ Gouldbourne of Sandy Bay, Clarendon and Marlo Headley, 19, a resident of Palmers Cross also in Clarendon.

A court date for the accused men will be finalised later this week.

According to lead investigator DSP Jermaine Anglin, both accused men “confessed” to the killing of the 44-year-old Four Paths Primary and Junior High School teacher who was taken at gunpoint from her Denbigh Kraal home in the Clarendon capital on March 30.

• Body parts of missing school teacher found near old highway exit
• Residents had opportunity to prevent teacher’s death
• Man driving car of missing teacher fatally shot

Based on investigation DSP Anglin said the men went with the intention to rob Dawkins. But the educator was killed because she personally knew Gouldbourne, who also goes by the alias ‘LJ’. 

Gouldbourne, Headley and their 20-year-old crony Jeff Bedward, who was earlier shot fatally by security forces, were all involved in the abduction and murder of Dawkins, who the police said was shot and left to rot in bushes near an abandoned highway exit in Sandy Bay, Clarendon.

“Based on their confession she was shot,” Anglin told Old Harbour News.

Skeletal remains, which the police strongly believed to be that Dawkins, were on the afternoon of April 8 discovered in the said location as investigators intensified its probe.

The discovery followed the arrest of three then persons of interests: Gouldbourne, Headley and the brother of Jeff Bedward. Their identities were not made public at the time as they were not formally charged.

Having put together several pieces of crucial evidence, Anglin said Gouldbourne and Headley were charged, but Bedward’s brother was released as investigators are unable “prove his involvement”.

Arising from the fatal shooting of Bedward, more information started flowing, Anglin told Old Harbour News.

Bedward was shot dead in a shootout during a joint police-military operation in Belfield, St Catherine where he caught in possession of Dawkins’ blue Toyota Wish motor car. A .38 pistol was recovered from the scene, while another man who was with Bedward at the time, escaped. The identity of the escapee remains unknown to the police.

The sudden disappearance and subsequent death of Dawkins, an educator of some 20 years and also part-time bailiff for a private company, had an earth shattering effect throughout the Jamaican landscape.

The powerful and influential Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) joined forces with the police in search of hopefully finding her alive, while a reward of $1 million was put up for information that could lead to a breakthrough.

Anglin, who is the crime officer for Clarendon, said the assistance of the public was of huge help in solving this homicide.

“It is the overwhelming assistance of the public to include the JTA,” he said in response to the speed at which the case of successfully investigated, before adding: “One of the main reasons is not because that she was a teacher but because she is a missing person. More persons will come forward to assist when a person is reported missing.”

The 24-year-veteran of the force, said how our boys are being socialise is, in his opinion, among the key factors fuelling crime.

“I do believe that our young men are socialised with less morals and less appreciation for life and for others on a whole. Our young persons are more individualized,” he said.