DR Peter Vogel, a lecturer employed to the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), was among six persons who died violently in the Corporate Area yesterday.

Professor Vogel, a 60-year-old Swiss national who lectured in the Life Sciences Department, was found dead in the living room of his home at the College Common by one of his children just before dawn yesterday.

His hands and feet were bound and his mouth was gagged. It is believed he was strangled. Vogel’s green Suzuki Grand Vitara, a television set and other items were missing.

The police said they were trying to locate Vogel’s live-in helper and her young child.

UWI officials were yesterday tight-lipped and refused to divulge any information relating to the slain professor.

“We have been given strict orders not to give any information to the media,” a woman in the Life Sciences Department told the Observer. At the same time, a security guard at the entrance of College Common said his orders were to keep the media off the compound.

A staff member at the university described Vogel as a decent man.

“He was a nice person. Nobody could have broken in there and killed him because security is tight. It must have been somebody who he knew,” the man said.

Vogel was involved in bio-diversity projects, including studies of the Jamaican iguana, parrots, reptiles and birds of the Cockpit Country, the Blue Mountains, the John Crow Mountains and south coast dry forests. He was an executive member of BirdLife Jamaica, the Jamaica Iguana Research and Conservation Group and the Game Bird Research Committee.

Executive director of the Jamaica Environment Trust Diana McCaulay was saddened by news of Vogel’s killing.

“His death is a tragic loss. He has trained and taught thousands of Jamaicans for many years,” McCaulay said.

Three of the other five people who died violently in the city yesterday were identified as Latoya Currie, 22, of Woodford Street, in St Andrew; Orville Taylor of Portmore in St Catherine; and Miguel Walters, also known as ‘Fuggy’, of Tavares Gardens. The two other victims were unidentified.

Currie’s body was found stuffed in a barrel at the entrance of the Calvary Cemetery. It was clad in a floral blouse and blue jeans.

After members of the Homicide Assessment Team removed her body from the barrel, it was discovered that she had a wound resembling a chop on her head, while flies swarmed Currie’s decomposing remains which appeared to have had burn marks.

The barrel contained baby and women’s clothes, but the address and name on it were peeled off.

The unidentified man found at Lamoth Lane had a single gunshot wound just above his left eye. He was clad in a blue polo shirt, bearing the logo of a soft drink company, and blue jeans. The man’s pants were drawn down to his knees and he had bruises on the left arm and belly.

Residents of the area who came to look at the body said he was not from the community.

“Him look like a taxi driver. Him no come from bout yah,” a youngster with a bleached-out face said.

The other unidentified man, an elderly rastafarian, was shot as he pushed his handcart on Slipe Pen Road about 2:00 yesterday afternoon. Police say they were looking for a man known only as ‘Cass’ from the nearby Hannah Town in connection with the incident.

The police reported that Taylor was shot and killed as he sat on a stall at the Jubilee Market in downtown Kingston, while Walters was fatally shot by cops who said he was among a group of men who opened fire at them in the Tavares Gardens community. The police said they returned the fire and Walters was cut down. A 9 mm Luger pistol was allegedly taken from him.