Brutal! GraceKennedy executive and mother stabbed to death

Livern Barrett, Gleaner Writer

POLICE INVESTIGATORS up to late yesterday were still trying to find out what could have led to the brutal knife slaying of a GraceKennedy executive and her elderly mother in an upscale apartment complex in Queensway, St Andrew.

"We are not sure of a particular motive right now, and we certainly don't want to speculate," said Deputy Superintendent of Police Michael Phipps, the crime chief for the Area Four Police Division.

Arlene Lym, 48, who was the executive assistant to Douglas Orane, the chairman of GraceKennedy, Limited, and her mother, Dorothy Lym, 73, were stabbed repeatedly at their home shortly after 6 a.m. yesterday by a lone attacker.

The Constabulary Communications Network (CCN), the police information arm, confirmed that a suspect was in custody, but said his identity was being withheld pending further investigations.

Guardsman Limited, in a release yesterday, said the suspect was apprehended by one of its quick-response teams with "a bloody knife" in his possession at a Corporate Area financial institution minutes after the attack and handed over to the Half-Way Tree Police.

GraceKennedy officials declined to comment yesterday, saying the entire organisation was shocked and extremely saddened by the death of their colleague and her mother.

According to the CCN, both women were at home when residents reported hearing screams for help coming from their apartment and saw a man leaving.

The residents then went to the apartment. "Dorothy was found lying in the yard with stab wounds and was taken to the University Hospital of the West Indies where she died while undergoing treatment. Arlene died on the spot," the CCN said.