SENIOR homicide detectives at the Hunts Bay Police Station say they have detained a prime suspect in connection with the murder of Ocho Rios residents Patrick Ramsay, 40 and businessman Mark Anthony Yap Shing, 32.

The investigators refused to reveal the suspect’s name but admitted that he has so far been charged with unlawful possession of Ramsay’s $40,000 diamond-studded watch and pleaded guilty to that charge in the Half-Way-Tree Criminal Court two weeks ago. The matter has been adjourned for sentencing.

Both Ramsay and Yap Shing reportedly left Ocho Rios for Kingston on Sunday, April 28 in a Toyota Starlet motor-car owned by Derrick Tiechang of Ocho Rios.

At about 5:30 the following morning, a police patrol from the Hunts Bay station in Kingston spotted a Toyota Starlet with bloodstains on the trunk parked off the causeway. During a search of the area, Ramsay’s and Yap Shing’s mutilated bodies were found in the vicinity of the zinc factory.

The hands of both men were tied with electrical cord, their mouths sealed with tape, a latex glove found near the bodies and Ramsay’s wrist watch was missing.

Superintendent in command of Hunts Bay, Newton Amos, who declined to give details about the case, admitted that the police have widened their background checks internationally, including in the United States where Ramsay lived for a number of years before being deported twice over the last 10 years.

Investigators also say that Ramsay had disputes with a number of his former cronies in Florida where he served a five-year prison sentence for drugs. The police said their preliminary investigations suggest that Ramsay may have been killed because his US-based criminal associates concluded that he had broken a code of silence on their drug trafficking operation.

Yap Shing, the police believe, was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Meanwhile, investigators say the suspect who was known to Ramsay and Yap Shing, will remain in custody as he is scheduled to face a number of identification parades.

Police also explained that the suspect is being investigated in connection with a number of other crimes, including several murders committed in St Ann and the Corporate Area.