JAMAICA, Clarendon – FAMILY and friends of Pearnel and Damion Watson (no relation), the two undertakers of Phillips and Son Funeral Home found murdered in bushes near Kitson Town, St Catherine on Tuesday evening, are still trying to come to terms with the gruesome discovery.
Pearnel, a 24-year-old driver, and Damion, a 19-year-old morgue attendant, were reported missing on Tuesday morning after they responded to a call to pick up a body in Davis, Old Harbour on Monday night, but did not return. Their bodies – clad in the uniform of the funeral home – were found with hands and feet bound and gunshot wounds to their heads.
The Toyota Hiace minibus in which the men were travelling has since been recovered by the Spanish Town Police, who are questioning several persons in relation to the murders.
On Wednesday at the funeral home, Joy Phillips – one of the managers – hailed the slain men as dedicated employees, while family members remembered them as quiet and jovial individuals. “Pearnel is quiet, soft-spoken, but not a guy you can push around. He’s very strict, disciplined and takes his work seriously,” Phillips said of her late employee.
“Mud Pusher (Damion) is just a nice guy,” Phillips added before David Brown – said to be a close friend of Damion – interjected with his voice cracking, “focused and him learn quickly”.
“Right now everybody is just trying to cope, but I don’t think anybody taking it very well because these workers were very close to us,” Phillips added. Pearnel, who has a nine-month-old son with two more believed to be on the way, was employed to the company for five years, while Damion was there from 2008.
Lewin, Damion’s 64-year-old grandmother, said her daughter (Damion’s mother) was hospitalised on Tuesday night upon hearing of her son’s death. She described her grandson, who had been living with her since he was 10 years old, as “a nice person (who) gives plenty jokes and… don’t trouble people.” Pearnel’s mother, Princess Watson, said she had a close relationship with her son and last heard from him Sunday morning after he met in an accident while on his way to a funeral.
She too said her family was having a hard time dealing with the tragedy. “Everybody crying and my daughter taking it real hard because she nuh see her brother for a number of years…,” she said. And while work at the funeral home was not postponed, grief-stricken employees moped around as onlookers gathered offering their theory of what might have happened.
“I just figure people just want the bus to do something. But if a suh, jus lef di man dem nuh,” said one female, alluding to the possibility of the minibus being wanted to transport contraband. One worker was overheard saying that an officer from the nearby Four Paths Police Station has instructed them to contact the police before responding to calls in the future.
And while not going into details, Phillips told the Observer that the company is “definitely” considering making changes to its late-night operations.
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