LIONEL Thomas, the employee of the Caribbean Cement Company who has been charged with the death of his supervisor Wayne “Ricey” Clarke, was yesterday remanded in custody when he appeared before Senior Resident Magistrate Martin Gayle in the Kingston Criminal Court.

He is scheduled to reappear in court on December 14, when the case will again be mentioned.

The new mention date was set after Thomas’ lawyer told the court that the defence was still awaiting the results from a post mortem and other forensic tests to be carried out on the body of Clarke.

According to court documents, Clarke was discovered missing at approximately 12:05 am on October 29. After a search was launched for him, blood was discovered on the ground behind pallets near the fence of the compound just beside the sea.

The pair of sneakers Clarke was said to be wearing was also found at the seaside with bloodstain on it, court documents said.

The search for Clarke continued into the following day, and his body was found floating in the sea along the Palisadoes main road, in the vicinity of the Gypsum Company – a short distance from where he worked. An on-the-spot post-mortem found that Clarke’s death was caused by ligature strangulation and multiple stab wounds to the neck.

The court documents also said that there had been an ongoing dispute between Thomas and Clarke, during which Thomas allegedly made several threats on Clarke’s life.

According to police from the Elletson Road CIB, intelligence led them to believe that a colleague was instrumental in having Clarke killed. Several of his colleagues were interrogated on November 1, during which Thomas was allegedly implicated. He was formally charged on November 18.