Accusations of family torture as 88-y-o woman dies in hospital
Published:Monday | July 11, 2022 | 11:45 PM
Janet Silvera/Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
An 88-year-old woman who was reportedly tortured and beaten by a relative died eight days after she was admitted to the Spanish Town Hospital in a coma.
Lettis Lynch was taken to the St Catherine-based hospital on Friday, July 1, with evidence of burn marks on her torso and shoulder. There was also a slash to her right foot, her eyelids, hair, and her mouth had bloodstains, says her daughter Novlette Evans.
Senior Superintendent Christopher Phillips, who heads the St Catherine South Police Division, said a post-mortem has been ordered as investigators try to conclude whether foul play is suspected in the elderly woman's death.
"Obviously, the people under whose care she was will be investigated," Phillips said in response to Gleaner queries late Monday.
Evans said she was forced to flee the home of relatives on Monday, June 27, leaving behind her mom, who was incapacitated.
A Canadian resident, Evans said she returned to Jamaica in January to help find a place for her mom who had broken a hip. But the Portmore home promised to her became entangled in the courts as the tenants there refused to move.
Claiming to have been hounded out of the house, Evans said she left without even packing her bags.
Her wheelchair-mobile mother was left behind.
Five days later, she received a call from the wife of her relative advising that her mom was in the hospital and that she should hurry there before she passed away.
“When I went to hospital, she had burn marks on her left buttocks and shoulder, and her right foot was slashed," Evans told The Gleaner.
"Her right hand seemed broken. I lifted it and it just dropped back down,” said Evans.
She is convinced that a hot iron and other implements were used to torture her mom.
“My mother was badly dehydrated. She seems to have been starved for the entire week," Evans said.
"By the time she reached the hospital, she had fallen into a coma,” added Evans, unable to hold back the tears.
Evans said she made a report to the Bridgeport Police Station the night her mother was admitted to the hospital but it took the police two days to bring in the accused relatives for questioning.
After both were interrogated, they were released by the police, she said.
Evans is demanding justice for justice for her mother.
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