Leon Reynolds didn’t like the fact that his daughter, Natalie, had started a relationship with Anthony Wright. In fact, Reynolds said he had warned her against the union, pointing out to her that Wright was known as an abuser – a man who took delight in cutting women.

“From the day them two people deh get together I been telling her ‘Beware of dis man yah. You nuh see say is jus cut him cut up woman’,” Reynolds, told the Sunday Observer last Thursday. “I been warning her from long time, people been warning her from long time. Me tell her say ‘Yuh nuh know him, him is not your type’.”

Natalie, however, did not heed her dad’s warning and eventually married Wright.

Last Wednesday, after 17 years with Wright, for whom she had seven children, Natalie was brutally killed by him at, of all places, her father’s house.

Residents claiming to be eyewitnesses said Wright had turned up at the house in Lucky Hill, Glengoffe, St Catherine at approximately 3:15 pm to see his wife. The couple had separated last October and Natalie had been staying at her father’s house with the children.

During the visit, the couple began arguing and Wright, in a fit of rage, swung a hoe at Natalie, even though she was holding their one-year-old daughter, Rashika, in her arms. The blade slashed her throat and she collapsed on top of the infant.

So forceful was the blow that the hoe’s stick snapped in two. Wright then swung the broken stick at the couple’s 16-year-old son Marlon, wounding him on his right ear, after which he chased one of his daughters, but she managed to escape.

Before running off, however, Wright loudly announced that he would return to inflict the same treatment upon everyone left in the house.

His threat, however, proved empty as his lifeless, barefooted body was found just after dawn the following day hanging by a rope tied to a mango tree on his plot on the Corner Wood Farm in Lucky Hill.

Police and residents believe he committed suicide.

However, news of Wright’s death brought more relief than grief to the residents of the rustic, rural community. But none was more relieved than Reynolds as he and several other men had camped out in his house the night before, with machetes at the ready, expecting Wright to attack again.

“You know say is no sleep the whole night, because him could come from anywhere inna the bush,” said Reynolds. “The whole night we wait fi him.”

Reynolds admitted that what bothered him most about his daughter’s murder was that it occurred at his own home when he wasn’t there.

“Probably if I was there I coulda do something,” Reynolds said, unable to mask his grief. “From me know him, him neva try anyting wid me yet. All one time when me and him have argument and him have him machete me jus push him outta di way and say ‘Gimme pass man’ and him nuh do me nutten. Him never war wid a man yet, is woman alone him have strength for.”

Reynolds went on to paint a picture of Wright as a man with a long and violent history, particularly towards his wife and children.

“That man cut up nuff woman already… When him beat the children him used to use machete and wire and dem ting deh, and when she (Natalie) try fi stop him, him start beat her too,” Reynolds said.

He also said that in the past Wright had tried unsuccessfully to hang one of his sons.

“Him have the pickney inna di same place weh him heng himself. Him call her (Natalie) and tell the boy fi tell her is the last time she goin’ hear from him. But she was at the [police] station and she mek the police hear everything him say. But de bwoy get wey. Him (Wright) couldn’t catch him. Is must the same rope him use heng himself too,” said Reynolds.

Last Thursday, as residents reflected on the gruesome events, one man was overheard saying, “How we fi miss dem man deh? Dem man deh a evil from first to last”.

Another man also told how Wright had damaged all the fingers on one of Natalie’s hands when he chopped her during a previous argument.

Two women who declined to be named, also described Wright as a violent man.

“The man is known to be a violent man. On more than one occasion she go hospital because of him. Imagine, them even carry him go court and she go there and beg for him and him get bail. And when him come out him beat her again,” one of the women told the Sunday Observer.

Phyllis Mitchell, caretaker for the North-East St Catherine constituency, who was on her way to visit the residents on Thursday, told the Sunday Observer that Wright was to face the court that very day on a charge of wounding his son. He was to also return to court on February 28 to answer to a charge of wounding his wife.

In the meantime, Natalie was portrayed as a kind, courteous woman by her father and other residents in the community.

“She was a courteous woman, a real courteous, decent young girl,” Reynolds said.

“She was a quiet girl, a well-behaved girl,” said another resident who declined to be named.

Now that his daughter has been cruelly taken away from her children, Reynolds said his focus would be to take care of them, including the two she had before marrying Wright. They are:

. Damion Sinclair, 21;

. Samoya Sinclair, 20;

. Marlon Wright, 16;

. Richard Wright, 14;

. Raymond Wright, 12;

. Romaine Wright, 10;

. Roxanne Wright, 8;

. Rannique Wright, 4; and

. Rashika Wright, 1.