OCHO RIOS, St Ann – Hutchinson’s Hole, the infamous 325-foot deep dumping ground for the victims of mass murderer, Lewis Hutchinson in the 1700s, was again thrust into the spotlight on Wednesday when members of the Jamaican Cave Organisation recovered the remains of 32 year-old St Ann farmer, Carlton Rose, from the bowels of the sinkhole.

The recovery brought an end to three-and-a-half months of agony for Rose’s relatives and neighbours who finally know, for sure, that he is dead.

Rose reportedly jumped in the hole, located at Dromilly, near Bensonton in St Ann, last November.

He was last seen running in the direction of the hole, singing a hymn, after having threatened to toss himself in, a source told the Observer.

According to police reports, on Sunday, November 10, 2003, Rose had a dispute with family members after which he began acting strangely. He later ran from the yard and jumped into the hole, cops said.

But even after Wednesday’s discovery, Rose’s relatives – including his younger brother, Lawrence – still dismissed the suicide theory. Rose had quarelled with his sister, they said, but that was a full month before his alleged suicide.

The St Ann police are continuing investigations into the incident even though “the evidence points to suicide,” Superintendent of Police for St Ann, Ray Palmer, confirmed Friday morning.

Rose’s body may have been recovered on Wednesday, but the quest to retrieve it began long before then.

The fire department, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) and the police had all tried, in the past, but without any success. The huge hole in the ground was just too deep.

Then last Sunday, after requests from the police and family members, explorers from the cave organisation into the bowels of the earth. They saw what appeared to be Rose’s remains but efforts to retrieve it only resulted in securing a shoe-clad foot that became detached from the body during the process.

The cavers called in the cops, told them they had found a body and the lawmen asked them to bring it up. The cavers returned Wednesday to complete the job.

“It was pretty grim,” group leader, Stefan Stewart, told the Observer of the ordeal. “It was very decomposed, you can imagine a body three-and-a-half months old, that’s what it was like.”

Except for those brief comments, he refused to give any further details about the state of the recovered body that took almost six hours to bring to the surface.

The four cavers and an assistant began working at about 10:15 am. By then, Rose’s relatives and a few curious onlookers were already on the scene.

After the two-hour task of rigging the rope that would lower the team and their equipment into the hole, Alva Conelly, described as one of the island’s best cavers, began his 98-metre descent. Stewart descended 20 minutes later.

Throughout the day, small crowds gathered at strategic locations by the side of the road overlooking the steep decline that culminated in the sinkhole, trying to observe the proceedings. A police barrier near the road prevented the crowd from getting too close.

As the day wore on, the crowd swelled and several persons avoided police detection by sliding down slopes, through bushes and across the cow pasture. They crowded the area around the gaping tunnel that seemed to descend to the centre of the earth.

And while descending into sinkholes was nothing new for Stewart and his team, removing human remains was a first for them. Stewart emerged from the hole at around 2:20 pm, unable to bear the stench any longer. Conelly emerged an hour later. Fifteen minutes later, a body bag that they had taken into the cave was hoisted to the surface, preceded by a horrible stench that was still not enough to prevent some members of the crowd from getting a closer look at the body bag contents as a post mortem was done on the scene.

After the autopsy, the remains were removed by Brown’s Funeral Home.

For Rose’s relatives, the closure can now begin.

“Mi really feel pleased seh him come outta di hole and me glad fi di help,” said his brother, Lawrence.

Burial will take place as soon as the body is released, he said.