The gruesome murders of five members of a St Thomas family - three of them children no older than nine years old - have left people in this parish on Jamaica's southeastern coast shocked and bewildered.

The victims' family and friends are also fearful that another member of the family - Jhaid McCool, 6 - and Michael McLean, who had a relationship with one of victims, are also dead, as they cannot be found.
The murdered family members are:
. Farika Martin-McCool, 27, dry goods clerk, and her three children
. Jessie Ogilvie, 9;
. Sean Chin, 8;
. Lloyd McCool, 3; and
. Terry-Ann Mohammed, also called 'Teenie', 42, businesswoman and aunt of Farika Martin-McCool.

Friends of the family members who were brutally murdered in St Thomas mourn yesterday after their bodies were found. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

They all lived at 49 Duhaney Pen Road, St Thomas.
Up to last night, homicide detectives from Kingston, directed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Arthur 'Stitch' Martin, could not determine a motive for the gruesome killings. However, a high-ranking investigator, who asked not to be named, said the killings were "a highly organised job".
Police said that at about 7:00 am yesterday, fishermen on the Blue Mahoe Beach in Prospect stumbled upon the bodies of two children - Lloyd and Jessie - lying together with their throats cut.

The bodies of Martin-McCool and her son Sean were found about a half-mile away, on the other side of the beach called 'Cutters Point'. Their throats were also cut and Martin-McCool had several stab wounds in her back.
Detectives believe that Martin-McCool was running away from her attacker(s) as she was found lying on her face about 22 yards from her son's body, which was also lying face down.

At about 10:30 am, Terry-Ann Mohammed's body was found 12 miles away on the side of a footpath in Needham Pen. It was burnt beyond recognition.
Police said the body was identified by a pair of slippers she was wearing.

Hundreds of people converged on the beach in groups, running from either end to see the bodies which remained where they were found for approximately six hours until the Scene of Crime team arrived from Kingston.
Women and children wept loudly when the undertakers, who collected the bodies, removed the coverings to show the wounds to the throats of two of the children.

"This is a shocking thing to everybody," said one man in the crowd. "Is the first in my life I see anything as gruesome as this. It bad fe true. Dem de man de cruel fe true, even de little pickney throat dem cut."
Another man said: "This a Mafia killing. A so de drug man dem an de Mafia do fe dem killing. If a nuh something behind it, den a mus some sign God a send."

At the family home in Duhaney Pen, a large, grieving crowd of family and friends gathered. Mohammed's father, George Mohammed, 94, said she left on Saturday for work at her boyfriend's bar and restaurant in Morant Bay. At about 10:00 pm when she did not return home, he thought she had gone to a party.
"But today at about 12 o'clock I hear that they kill her and her body was found on the beach along with my granddaughter... I don't know how I feel," he said in a soft voice.

He said Jessie, who had accompanied his mother to work, returned home at about 2:00 pm with two bags and went back. "That is the last I see of them," he said. "I can't see why people would kill them."
Yesterday, relatives remembered Farika as a friendly, fun-loving person who adored her children and loved to dress up. Her husband, they said, was convicted on a ganja charge in January and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment.

Sean Chin's father, Sean Chin Snr of Retreat, St Thomas, said he was devastated. He said he last saw his son on Saturday.
"He came to remind me that his birthday will be Tuesday, February 28," said Chin. "I am devastated. I am shocked. I am trying to figure out what could have caused their deaths."

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