ANN-MARIE Saunders, the mother of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldier who went missing almost a year ago, has finally found closure in the matter.

Saunders, after several months of mourning for her beloved Travis Saunders, a JDF private, recently laid his body — or what was left of it — to rest.

“Yes, there is finally closure,” said Saunders, following the funeral service at the Power of Faith Ministries in Portmore, St Catherine.

Now smiling, the woman’s demeanour was a stark contrast to her state when, after two examinations, Government pathologists still could not say whether or not the corpse, found three months after her son went missing on February 11, was his.

She, however, got the confirmation she was waiting for about two weeks ago.

“I felt relieved when they told me that the body was confirmed his. I felt good. I just started to run and tell everybody that I am going to get Travis,” she said.

“When I went to the morgue and look at his facial features and his body, I said ‘yes, this is Travis’,” she said. “It was pure bones but my baby had a kinda broad cheekbone, and he had really long arms and legs. When I saw those I knew that it was him,” she said.

Private Travis Saunders, 22, was stationed in Moneague, St Ann, but was transferred to Up Park Camp in Kingston for the visit of the King and Queen of Spain. He was discovered missing when his mother went to pick him up at his home in Kitson Town, St Catherine.

According to Saunders, she was informed by his girlfriend that he had already left home with friends.

His decomposing body was later found at the edge of a mud lake in Ewarton.

Relatives cried uncontrollably at his funeral service, despite a request from his mother that they remain strong.

Beyanka Chung, the soldier’s teenage niece, broke down in tears less than two paragraphs into the reading of the second lesson. She had to be consoled and taken from the podium by her aunt.

But with the funeral now out of the way, Saunders said she now has only one more request.

“I hope they will find somebody. They can find the killer if there is a proper investigation into the incident. To me it looks like a clear-cut case, but I don’t think a detailed investigation is being done right now,” she said.