TOWN HEAD, Westmoreland – The Frome police have taken a second man into their custody as they continue investigations into the double murder of two little girls at Town Head in Westmoreland.

“We picked up somebody a week before last week Friday and we are following some leads in his direction,” Sergeant E Antino Smith, who has responsibility for the Frome police, told the Observer on Thursday.

This suspect, like the other, is from the Burnt Savannah area of the parish and has had DNA samples, which are to be matched against those taken from the scene of the murders, taken from him for testing at the forensic laboratory in Kingston. He is in his late twenties.

The police are, in the interim, still awaiting the test results of the 18 year-old suspect still in their custody.

There is, however, no clear indication of when there could be a breakthrough in the case but Smith said the police continue in their effort to nab the person responsible for the gruesome slaying of the little girls.

“We are trying our best and persons in the community are giving us information. As soon as they give us information we check it out,” he said, adding that the local investigators were getting the assistance from a team in Kingston.

“We are getting help from Acting Superintendent Grant from the Homicide Division in Kingston. He and a team of five persons have been coming here to assist us on a weekly basis,” he said.

The little girls, Shanna Kay Legister, nine, and Sheneka Shakes, eight, were found murdered inside canefields near their school, a day after they were reported missing on June 30.

– williamsp@jamaicaobserver.com