LIONEL TOWN, Clarendon – The decomposing bodies of a cabbie who had been stabbed in the chest and an exotic dancer whose throat had been slashed were found in a cane field on the Moneymusk Sugar Estate in Clarendon, yesterday morning.

The bodies have been identified as 28 year-old Reuben Williams, and 25 year-old Nadine Knowles.

An estate employee stumbled on the corpses at about 7:00 am while preparing the fields for burning, ahead of harvesting the cane. The cops were called in and a post mortem was done on the spot as a large crowd looked on from the sidelines.

According to one investigator, Detective Corporal Norman Johnson, Williams had been reported missing on February 13, one day after his Toyota Corolla motor car was found crashed in the fence of the Vere Technical High School in the parish. Two men who were seen running from the vehicle escaped into a nearby community.

Knowles’ family, accustomed to her leaving home for long periods because of the nature of her job, had no idea she was missing.

Yesterday, scores of residents from Portland Cottage, Rocky Point, Mitchell Town and surrounding communities in Southern Clarendon converged on the cane field where the bodies lay.

Some cried openly. Others lashed out at whoever was responsible for the killings.

Carmen Walters, a Jamaican mother of three who is visiting from Canada, described the event as tragic.

“It just breaks your heart to think of how cruel we are towards each other; animals don’t behave like this,” she said. “It is up to us, as parents, to educate our kids that life is for living and not to wipe out each other.”

Wayne Williams, 33, the grief-stricken brother of the slain cabbie, told the Observer that he had last seen his brother at about 8:00 pm on February 12, the day before he went missing.

According to Wayne, his brother – who regularly used his vehicle to transport persons from Portland Cottage to Lionel Town – was a quiet man. He said he could not remember Williams ever saying he was in any conflict with anyone.

Yesterday, after the post mortem, the two bodies were placed in wooden coffins and removed to Johnson’s Funeral Home in Denbigh.

The police do not yet have a motive or suspects for the killings.