FALMOUTH, Trelawny- Regular service at the Assemblies of Holiness Church in this seaside town was yesterday replaced with a brief prayer session as the congregation mourned the loss of the church caretaker, whose lifeless body was found on the church compound with stab wounds to the chest earlier in the morning.

Police say the caretaker, 32-year-old Martin Barrett of 2 Lower Harbour Street, Falmouth – the church address – was found at about 6:30 am by a passerby. The body, clad in a pair of green shorts, a t-shirt and shoeless, was lying face up in a pool of blood beside a huge metal gate at the entrance to the church premises.

“Investigations by the police who arrived shortly afterwards revealed that Barrett had what appeared a to be a stab wound to the chest,” said Corporal Patrick Chin, the Constabulary Communication Network liaison officer for Trelawny.

He added that further investigations by the police revealed that the administrative offices of the church, as well as Barrett’s living quarters, were broken into and ransacked. It is not clear if anything was stolen.

As the news of Barrett’s untimely death circulated throughout the Falmouth community, scores of teary-eyed, grief-stricken residents, as well as members of the church, converged at the death scene embracing each other.

Some wept openly.

“Martin will be sadly missed by everybody,” Pastor Huntley Webster said with tears rolling down his cheeks.

“He was a calm person who got along with everybody. Martin was very instrumental in putting up the public address system at the church. Every Sunday morning he would be here playing cassettes voicing out the wonderful gospels before the start of service,” said an obviously shaken Webster.

Similar sentiments were echoed by the large crowd.

During yesterday’s brief prayer service – held under a large tent on the church compound – Pastor Webster urged the members to be strong as he expressed sympathy to Barrett’s many friends, relatives and well-wishers.

The Falmouth CIB are investigating.