FOUR years after the abduction and mysterious death of her son, Ann- Marie Saunders is still battling with the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) for his death benefits.

Private Travis Saunders went missing from his home in Kitson Town, St Catherine, on February 11, 2009. After four long months of searching, a body believed to be his was dragged from the edge of a mud lake in Ewarton, St Catherine.

The find brought bittersweet joy to the mother, who, while mourning her son’s death, was happy that some of her questions were finally being answered. But closure itself was slow in coming.

It took seven more months and at least two tests before Government pathologists reported that the body was indeed that of Travis. The wait attenuated both the woman’s faith and figure and caused her hair to fall out.

However, in February 2010, things took an upturn.

Travis’ remains were finally laid to rest in a touching service at Power of Faith Ministries in Portmore, St Catherine. His mother sat through the proceedings with a distant stare as relatives and friends, sobbing heavily, spoke of a life “gone too soon”.

At the end, however, she smiled. “At least I can get on with my life,” she whispered to this reporter as pall-bearers hoisted her son’s casket out of the church. That should have been the end of her troubles.

But, alas, it was not.

Since the funeral, the mother has been waging a one-woman battle against the JDF — the island’s ultimate security outfit. To this day, she said, the military has been unwilling to acknowledge the body as that of her son, making her ineligible to claim his death benefits.

“I have submitted all the documents to say that he is dead and that it is him. The last paper that I sent out was the death certificate from the registry (Registrar General’s Department),” explained Saunders in a Sunday Observer interview last month. “I have submitted all of that, but when I spoke to the (JDF’s) legal office, they are saying that the DNA is still inconclusive and so they can’t award me his death benefits,” she continued.

“I want to know if the army can go above the DNA. Can they rule it out and say that it is not so?” she asked. Following that interview, the Sunday Observer sought a explanation from the JDF. Captain Basil Jarrett, head of the Civil/Military Co-operation said that the organisation had reviewed the case, and that the mother would finally be granted Travis’ death benefits.

This followed a meeting on Tuesday, November 26, with Saunders and representatives from the military. It lifted the mother’s hopes, but once again they were dashed.

On Friday, Jarrett contacted the newspaper to inform that the JDF was unable to make the award. In a letter, Jarrett stated: “In the case of the disappearance of Private Travis Saunders, the police have not yet completed their investigations and no coroner’s inquest has been held. Private Saunders, therefore, is listed as missing by the JDF, and we have no alternative but to await the results of the police investigation and the coroner’s inquest.”

According to Jarrett, obtaining a coroner’s inquest is among several criteria that need to be satisfied before any payment can be made to the grieving mother. He stated further that the police’s investigation runs parallel to that of another being undertaken by the JDF’s internal board of inquiry which was immediately launched upon Travis’ disappearance.

When the investigations are complete, and depending on the nature of the circumstances surrounding the case, “a written correspondence is sent to the Ministry of National Security as well as the Ministry of Finance, alerting both departments to the incident, and a Committee of Adjustments is formed to determine and outline the basis on which any payment is made by the Government of Jamaica”, he said.

Jarrett explained that the board of inquiry is responsible for interviewing Travis’ colleagues to find out, for instance, in whose company he was before he went missing, and their location. The board’s conclusion will, however, be dependent on data provided by the police and the coroner’s inquest. Jarrett could not give an update on the internal body’s progress with its investigation.

Under Jamaican law, a person must be missing for at least seven years before he can be legally declared dead. However, even after that time, the JDF may still not accept Travis as deceased, Jarrett noted.

“… Because persons have gone missing for longer than that and have then turned up. What the JDF would not want is a situation where we say that this man is dead, we go through all the proceedings that would take place in such a death, and then a few years from now Saunders shows up,” he said.

Jarrett’s statements have left Travis’ mother bewildered as, when the JDF decided last month to grant her the death benefits, it did not request a coroner’s report.

“They came to the conclusion that Travis is really dead, and he [Mason] is going to take me through the steps of the proceedings,” she said. “They told me that the board is going to meet now that they have concluded that he [Travis] is dead, now that the DNA is positive, and they were going to turn over whatever benefits they have for me,” she said, adding that she was told that the process would take four weeks.

She said she took to that meeting in November a burial order from the police, her son’s post-mortem report, a list of the items found beside his body at the mud lake, her son’s death certificate, and details concerning the bones found at the scene. All those documents were copied and given to the JDF, she said.

“Nobody told me about a coroner’s report. Are they going to do a coroner’s report? I don’t request any. Is the JDF going to request one?” she asked, fuming. “If they are going to do it, fine. After the meeting, they told me that it was a sure thing and that the entire process is going to take four weeks to conclude all that they had to do. This minute I hear one thing and the next minute I hear another, so I don’t know what to do; it’s all so contrary,” she said.

Saunders says she is clueless about her next move, noting that none of the investigators at the Spanish Town Police Station have been forthcoming with information about her son’s disappearance.