A suspect has been held in the investigation of the murder or Dr Lynvale Bloomfield, the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) parliamentarian who represented the Portland Eastern constituency.

A source close to the investigation told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that the suspect was held in Buff Bay in the parish yesterday after 1:00 pm.

According to the source, the police have been examining a series of messages between the suspect and Dr Bloomfield.

The source declined to name the suspect but said that he is in his early 20s, was born in Buff Bay, attended Buff Bay High School, and is self-employed.

Bloomfield is slated to be buried on February 23 after a funeral service at Church of the Open Bible in Port Antonio.

Bloomfield was found in his house in Passley Gardens, Portland, with multiple stab wounds on February 2.

Sources close to the probe said that bloodstains were in sections of the house, as well as in the yard.

There was no word regarding whether or not anything was taken from the house and his motor vehicles were said to be intact.

Dr Bloomfield, a Baptist, was born at Duanvale, Trelawny. He attended Cornwall College in Montego Bay, St James, and represented that school in athletics as a 100- and 200-metre sprinter before heading to Cuba to study medicine at the University of Havana, which he also represented in athletics.

He graduated in 1986 and, upon his return to Jamaica, ran a private medical practice in Port Antonio for over 30 years.

Dr Bloomfield was elected MP in 2011 and was re-elected in 2016. He had faced strong opposition in the defence of the seat and was expected to be replaced by the PNP for the next general election, constitutionally due in 2021.