BRUCE English spent yesterday close to his telephones waiting to be contacted again by the kidnappers. Monday night they had demanded $6 million for the release of his wife, Christine, 55.

"It is absolutely mind boggling why anybody would want to do such a thing as that," he said in the afternoon.

Detectives camped outside the Englishes' home in Gordon Town, interviewed neighbours and casual employees, interrogated potential suspects and generally searched for clues.

Mostly, it seems, they believe that the Andem gang was responsible for the kidnapping.

"Because of certain things .... we believe the Joel Andem gang who has been on the loose for nearly two years, are responsible for this crime," said a policeman, who is close to the investigation. "Our hope is that they don't kill her because at this time we don't know as yet where they are keeping her."

The Andem gang, which operates mostly in the Kintyre area of rural St Andrew, has previously been blamed for a similar high-profile kidnapping - of Sylvia Edwards, the service station owner who was snatched on July 31, 2001.

Edwards, for whom the kidnappers had asked for a ransom of $200,000, didn't make it out alive. Her body was found two days later in a shallow grave at University Heights in Papine. She had been shot in the head.

Yesterday, the police hoped that Christine English's case will be resolved differently and that she will be freed unharmed.
But neighbours in the usually quiet area of rural St Andrew were worried and fearful - including for their own safety.

"My wife is accustomed to taking a little walk on the road every now and again, but I am going to stop her," said one worried neighbour, who declined to give his name.

"This is a quiet community," he added. "I have lived here 24 years, and this is the first time that something like this has happened in this area."

The Englishes appear to be typical of the kind of easy-going people who like this rural community of gurgling streams and lush foliage and people talk easily to each other. People frequently said "good afternoon" yesterday.

Bruce English is a building contractor who has done substantial developments. His wife does volunteer work with charities.
Their wooden bungalow is modest.

"They are good people, and they employ a lot of people from the area," said Debbie Brown, who works at a neighbouring home. "So we don't know why anybody would want to do something like that."

The Englishes drove home at around 10:00 pm Monday night. Bruce English was preparing to drive into the premises when they were attacked by armed men waiting in ambush.

But according to the police, Bruce English was knocked unconscious. His wife was grabbed and bundled into another car. But before they sped away the kidnappers left a ransom note in English's trousers pocket.

"They all had guns," English said yesterday. "They tied me up and put me on the ground outside of my car then put my wife in the car they had and drove away with her."

"It's absolutely mind boggling. It really is," he said.
He said little else to reporters.

But according to a police source, about an hour later Christine English called her husband by telephone to say that she was unharmed.

"One of the kidnappers also spoke to him and confirmed that his wife, who had just woke up, was okay," said the policeman. "He also renewed the $6-million ransom demand to return her alive."

Yesterday, calls to Christine English's mobile phone was directed to her voicemail:

"Hi, this is Christine. Sorry I can't take your call now. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you. Thank you."

Yesterday there were questions of whether the kidnapping might have been foiled if neighbours, lulled into believing in a sense of security, had been more alert.

One neighbour, for instance, heard the sound of an alarm shortly after 9:30 Monday night. He thought it was just another of the car alarms that are occasionally accidentally triggered. He paid little attention.

"I was doing some Bible work, and I did not pay the alarm much mind," he said.

He heard of Christine English's abduction yesterday.

"My son told me that they kidnapped Mrs English and I could not believe because this sort of thing does not happen here," he said.

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