Mother of murdered Green Pond schoolgirl recounts last time she saw her alive

The mother of slain Green Pond High School student Shineka Gray today recounted the last time she saw her daughter alive at the trial of the man charged with her death.

Gregory Roberts is before the St James Circuit Court for murder.

Testifying via the Zoom platform on today's second day of the trial, the mother told the court she last saw her daughter at a fast food restaurant on January 29, 2017, days before the 15-year-old girl's body was found with stab wounds in bushes in Irwin, St James on February 1 that year.

"I was at the KFC on Howard Cooke Boulevard in St James, and I saw Shineka and her friends at the KFC. I spoke to Shineka and I left and went home because she was eating and it was 6:30," the mother explained in her evidence-in-chief. 

She also told the court that when her daughter did not reach home at 7 p.m. as expected, she tried several times without success to contact Gray by phone and then spent several hours looking for her in Montego Bay. 

The mother testified that she filed a report at the Freeport Police Station on January 30 about her daughter's disappearance, but did not get any news about Gray's whereabouts until two days later.

"On February 1, 2017, I got a call and I went to Irwin in St James, and I spoke to a police officer and the officer showed me a picture of Shineka in a tiger-print dress, the same picture in the missing persons report. I don't know anything after that, I woke up in the hospital," the mother said in between wiping her eyes.

The trial continues later today. 

Gray's father and aunt previously testified for the prosecution when Roberts' trial began last Thursday, November 23.

- Christopher Thomas

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