Some in the quiet farming community of Warwick, in deep rural Manchester, believe that 49 year-old Claudette Reid-Nelson simply chose the wrong man. Others believe her 29 year-old common-law husband was pushed too far, so he snapped and killed her.

But whatever the reason for her death, her daughter, Michelle Reid, just wants Joseph Francis caught.

It was four months ago, but the memories are still fresh. Reid’s face contorts with grief and pain as she recalls the morning when her nephew found her mother’s body in a small room at the back of the grocery shop she operated.

Her head was almost severed from her body.

Police suspect that she was murdered by her common-law husband Joseph Francis, who has fled the area. He is still at large.

Meanwhile, the memory of her mother’s mutilated body still lingers in Reid’s mind.

“My mother’s body was found in a sleeping position on her belly and when the police come and turn her over, is only a little string keep her head attached to her body,” she said dejectedly.

Police allege that Francis used a large kitchen knife, popularly called a ‘kitchen bitch’, to murder Reid-Nelson before disposing of the murder weapon in bushes behind the shop. A bloody pants and merino, alleged to have been worn by Francis at the time of the knife attack, were also found in the yard.

Despite attempts to nab him, Francis has managed to elude the police.

A Crime Stop advertisement, which shows both the alleged killer and the victim, advises the public that a $100,000 reward is on Francis’ head. But Reid’s relatives contend that the photograph used is outdated because Francis has since cut his hair and changed his appearance.

Reid-Nelson had hosted a small street dance the night before her throat was slashed.

“When the dance almost done and some man a linger ’round the shop, him get cross and start tell them say them must go home. Him try run them,” said one man, who gave his name as “Brother David”.

The slain woman’s daughter told the Observer that $80,000 was stolen from her mother’s body after she was killed.

“She had the week’s sale, plus the money she make from the dance the night before. No money was found on her body,” Reid said.

Others say Reid-Nelson was the subject of abuse from an often jealous Francis who would quarrel with her when she appeared to be too friendly with male customers.

“We knew of the verbal abuse because he used to cuss her a lot,” said Michelle. But according to the grief-stricken woman, Francis had no reason to be jealous.

“She was not involved in any affair as she just get over a stroke and couldn’t use her left hand good,” she said.

Since the horrific incident four months ago, Michelle, who is the eldest of Reid-Nelson’s four daughters, is barely able to cope with her own relationships, afraid, she said, that she might suffer the same fate.

“The fear lives with me,” she said sadly. “I just can’t stop thinking about it.”

But in her own way, she is trying to cope. One major step in getting her life back to normal was taking over her mother’s modest business. But it has not been easy.

“I just open the business a few days ago. (But) every morning I think I going come find something around the back of the shop,” she told the Observer.

Like Reid, most persons in the area are yearning to hear of Francis’ capture, but there are a few who sympathise with him.

“I am sorry for Claudette but I also sympathise with Joe,” one man said. “Him used to farm and carry him money and give her and she would ‘dis’ him in public.”

Others claim the age difference was a big factor in the breakdown of the common-law relationship.

“Me blame Claudette. The boy a 29 and she a 49. Whe she a do with a young boy like that?” a woman from the Warwick district asked.

The police meantime are continuing their hunt for Francis and say they have information that he is often in Higgins Town, St Ann; the St Catherine districts of Orangevale, Redwood and Guys Hill and Jeffrey Town in St Mary.