BBC NEWS | World | Americas | British woman killed in Jamaica

A British woman on an extended holiday in Jamaica has been found murdered.
Police on the Caribbean island said the body of Barbara Scott-Jones, 61, was found in a pit near the house she was staying at in the island's northwest.

Ms Scott-Jones, from Leeds, had been in Jamaica since January and was due to return home next month. She was reported missing on 14 March.

Police said they were looking for Omar Reid, 30, who worked as her caretaker, in connection with the death.

Ms Scott-Jones, a retired nurse, was staying at a house in Somerton and was last seen when she left to visit a friend in Montego Bay.

The local police, who had set up a task force to oversee the search, found her body clad in her underwear in a cess pit.

She had several wounds to her head, broken teeth and nose, and a fractured skull.

The skull injury was probably the cause of death, police said.

Constable Craig Sterling of St James police in Jamaica said they could not confirm reports that Mr Reid and Ms Scott-Jones were in a relationship.

He said: "He is actually her caretaker. We're not sure how close a relationship they had. But he is being sought at the moment."

A Foreign Office spokesman said officials from the High Commission in Jamaica have been in touch with close relatives who are also in the country to offer assistance.

Ms Scott-Jones is reported to be the first tourist killed in Jamaica this year. There were more than 1,400 murders in Jamaica in 2007, including 19 police officers.

sad story..............

Read this is some rent-a-dread lifestyle thing. Let's hope the justice system there does better that that investigation into that cricket murder. Still unnecessary negative attention for the island. Sad all the same, life just seems so cheap right now.

It's just scary how people's relatives can leave just for a vacation only to never come back alive again.

Urgh... you need to keep up man.

What was she doing in Jamaica? Why was she found dead after having been ''stripped'' to her underwear?...

...why was a woman of an apparently respectable position taking advantage of a people in poverty, paying young men to have sex with her?

Looks like she crossed the line between oppressor and oppressed and ended up worse for wear, seen too many comfort adverts back in the uk. Wonder what her grandchildren will grow up thinking of her being found in a somewhat fitting position, in a ''relationship'' with a caretaker with no front teeth.

Hope it sends a message out to those europeans who think they can pay a visit to countries (across the world) and even areas in their own countries and take advantage of a people in poverty like that as though its not bad enough that they've helped cause it in the first place.

Damn devils media trying to spin the story, pissed me off.

that place jamaica is a mess.
tourists should boycott the place.

When I was in Negril last I couldn`t believe the amount of rent a dreads..It was also the same in Barbados when I was there 3 years ago. Not long come back from Grand Cayman and there is nothing like that there. Jamaica should take a leaf out of their book. Crime is not tolerated there and everyone is so respectful.

Raaaaaaah!


BP used the word "emulate"


RISPECK

She must've really loved it there.

Should start throwing people like that in jail like they do cerb crawlers over here, lock them up for a few months and fine them heavily.

If one of them approached me.... well....