Help us find her - Family of missing nurse asks gov't to intervene

BY PAUL HENRY Crime/Court Desk Co-ordinator henryp@jamaicaobserver.com

Monday, February 13, 2012

THE distressed family of Kerran 'Kerry-Ann' Baker, the Jamaican nurse who went missing in the Cayman Islands last July and is feared dead, has made an impassioned plea for the intervention of the Jamaican Government in the matter.

Baker's stepfather, Wilmot Anthony, has now issued a public plea for the Jamaican foreign affairs ministry to get in touch with its counterpart in the Cayman Islands, and complains that the family is being stonewalled by investigators probing her disappearance.

"We have not been hearing anything from anybody. We need the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get in touch with the Cayman Government because the case seems like it is dying out," said Anthony, anguish evident in his voice.

"We need more support from the Jamaican Government," said Anthony. "She was a responsible, working Jamaican. She was no squatter there."

Baker, 25, a practical nurse, disappeared from her apartment on Arrow Drive in Bodden Town on the evening of Saturday, July 31. She was last seen on CCTV footage in a Cayman Islands supermarket around 7:00 pm that evening.

A man was taken into custody "on suspicion of murder, following a police operation in the Prospect area", but was later released without charge, Janet Dougall, public relations officer at the Cayman Islands Criminal Investigative Branch headquarters, told the Observer last week. The probe, according to Dougall continues.

Several major searches have failed to locate Baker, who had lived in the Cayman Islands three years prior to her disappearance. Her white Honda Civic motor car was later found with her car keys and what appeared to be blood smears nearby. Her groceries, which she apparently purchased at the supermarket, were also found in her ransacked apartment.