MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Bishop Dr Amos Campbell was active in Sunday’s funeral service for his daughter Khyhymn, 25, who was found in a cooler box in an abandoned car on the Winston Jones High Way in the parish in late August.

Last respects were paid at the True Vine True Holiness Ministries that he leads, which is also relatively close to where Khyhymn’s body was found.

Campbell tried to maintain his poise throughout the service, but likening the still open wound for the grieving family to the sport of boxing, he said it is a knock-down with much force.

“I don’t believe the devil knocked me out, but I count it as a knock-down. He gave me a stiff right hand. Lord, we need answers and a thousand times a day,” he said.

Campbell told the Jamaica Observer that his wife, in trying to cope with the situation as best as possible, did not sit with the congregation in the church during the service and did not travel to Oaklawn Memorial Gardens for the burial.

He said instead, she requested to be taken to the burial plot the next day and that the service was videoed so they could preserve the occasion.

Campbell said that their son, the older of their two children who had an ordeal that left him unable to speak prior to his sister’s death, was kept away from the funeral as that was felt to be in his best interest.

Still in disbelief that he was officiating the service for his daughter, at one point while reading the eulogy, he looked at the casket bearing her remains and asked: “Kym, is that you?”

Campbell commended the police for being in the right place at the right time, so that the family can have a body to bury. He said if the killer had had a chance to dump it, they would have had to spend the rest of their lives wondering what happened.

“It is a terrible closure but at least we have a body to bury,” he told the congregation, adding that they are expecting a resurrection.

Weighing heavily on Bishop Campbell’s mind as well, is a concern as to whether or not Khyhymn’s killer is really dead.

Police investigation has determined that 59-year-old Linton Stephenson, otherwise called Gary Stephenson or “Jawbone”, who was a parolee and a deacon at the Mandeville Seventh-day Adventist Church, is responsible for her death.

He was found dead at the house that he resided at Bloomsville Circle in Mandeville, and though the post-mortem report is inconclusive, speculations are that he committed suicide.

Campbell said that at the stage of decomposition at which the body was found, when he made checks to verify if the “huge cut” in the face of Stephenson was seen, he was told no.

“This man could be at large, maybe looking for the father now,” he said.

He said that he has made enquiries from the police if an autopsy or DNA evidence could prove if the body was really that of Stephenson’s and he was told that it would not be possible.

“Does that mean there is no hope and I cannot know for sure that the murderer is dead? I want to let Jamaica know I am not pleased,” he said.

The clergyman and educator said that there needs to be more checks and balances in the system, as it was flies that found the body of Stephenson at a house that should have been under surveillance.

Campbell further questioned how the alleged killer, a parolee, was allowed to operate a red plate taxi.

As he addressed the congregation, he said that if Jamaica is to achieve its vision 2030, the level of policing needs to be improved, starting with an extension of the six months of training and the incorporation of more personal and professional development opportunities.

Representatives from the Central Jamaica Conference within the Jamaica Union of Seventh-day Adventists, other denominations, Northern Caribbean University, the Battersea/Clarks Town Police Youth Club, Bishop Gibson High, Hampton High, Regent College of the Caribbean, and the political fraternity were among the congregants.

Khyhymn’s funeral on Sunday was held the same day that the parole of her killer, who has been out of prison since 2016, was scheduled to end.