LONG-TIME GraceKennedy employee Arlene Lym and her 73-year-old mother Dorothy Lym were the victims of a most vicious murder early yesterday morning at their Queen’s Way home in Kingston 10, triggering shock and bewilderment among friends, neighbours and co-workers.

Arlene Lym, who police said was 48 years old, had been working with GraceKennedy Chairman Douglas Orane since 1987. At the time of her death she was his executive assistant.

“This has hit us all very hard,” GraceKennedy’s Corporate Communications Manager Lorraine Jones told the Observer yesterday. “Our chairman is really overcome with shock and bereavement at what happened.”

Late yesterday evening, police said they had taken a man into custody for questioning in relation to the murders. They did not give his name.

Police report that residents heard screams for help coming from the property at about 6:00 am. They went to investigate and saw a man leaving the premises.

According to the police, Arlene Lym had gone outside to perform her routine morning exercise while her mother was having breakfast. The younger Lym was attacked and stabbed by a man who was apparently hiding in the washroom at the back of the complex. On hearing her daughter’s screams, Dorothy Lym went outside to investigate and was also brutally attacked and stabbed.

Neighbours found both women outside the back entrance to their building.

Arlene died on the spot, while her mother succumbed to her wounds a short while later at the University Hospital of the West Indies.

At mid-morning yesterday, a slipper, said to be Arlene’s, was still on the grass just outside the Lyms’ home and the concrete walkway no longer had any of the women’s blood spilled in the callous murders.

“My husband is not doing well,” said Karen Sinclaire-Lym, Dorothy’s daughter-in-law and sister-in-law to Arlene.

Sinclaire-Lym said she arrived on the scene as soon as she heard the news.

“When my husband and I got here, we found grandma (Dorothy) and rushed her to the hospital. My husband found his sister (Arlene) in-front the house, but she was already dead,” she told the Observer as family members gathered at the entrance to the apartment tried to comfort each other.

“I was the one who came and cleaned the breakfast off the floor,” added Sinclaire-Lym.

The police also said that there was no sign of robbery, as another female member of the family, a minor, was asleep inside the house and was found unharmed.

GraceKennedy’s Jones described Arlene Lym as someone who believed that there was no task beneath her.

“We’ve opened a condolence website for the staff,” she said, adding that the company had also brought in counsellors for the staff at its at Harbour Street head office.

Yesterday, before the suspect was apprehended, the police had issued an appeal to the public, asking anyone who may have seen any strange person in the area between 5:00 am and 6:30 am to call them.