Body of missing Jamaican woman found in woods in Connecticut

Gareth Davis Snr, Gleaner Writer

The search has ended for 30 year-old Jamaican Jessica Edwards-Hutchinson, after her body was found today in a wooded area in East Hartford, Connecticut in the United States.

Edwards-Hutchinson, who lived in Connecticut, had been missing since May 10, a day after having a special family dinner with relatives on Mother's Day.

She is the mother of a seven-month-old boy.

“Curried shrimp is my sister's favourite meal and I prepared it just for her,” the woman's sister Yanique Edwards told The Gleaner.

“She was in high spirits and she was rather excited and pleased with the meal. She was on the verge of graduating from college and we were all excited and happy for her. As a matter of fact, the entire community of South Windsor loved her very much. Her disappearance was rather strange and suspicious and we had been praying and hoping for her safe return,” Edwards added.

Edwards-Hutchinson, who at the time of her disappearance, was attending the Manchester Community College in Connecticut and was aiming to become a respiratory therapist.

And an uncle of the deceased, Paul Young, in an interview with The Gleaner on Friday from his home in Portland, Jamaica, said that it is a sad time for the family, as relatives had been praying for a different outcome.

“We are hurt by this new development and we are puzzled that anyone would go to the extreme to inflict hurt, more so murder, on such a quiet and friendly person,” said Young.

“It is never easy losing or coming to terms with the loss of a loved one, and this has really devastated my family both here in Jamaica and abroad. We now have closure, after searching for more than a week and a half, but it is not the kind of closure that we expected. It is a sad period for us and our mourning will continue for a long time to come,” he continued.

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