ST CATHERINE, Jamaica— A relative of 18-year-old Joeith Lynch and her mother Charmaine Rattray, the two St Catherine women brutally murdered and beheaded in Lauriston, St Catherine in 2011, today told a transfixed courtroom that the deaths have caused “mayhem” for remaining family members.

“The death has affected me in so many ways.  When she was born I called her my sunshine. That’s what I wanted her to be named,” the relative, whose name and gender are being withheld by order of presiding judge Justice Vivene Harris, told the court.

Describing Crystal as one who loved children, who was a tomboy, and who did well in school, the relative said the teen was robbed of her plans to study medicine and her dream to take her mother out of poverty.

“She would have been the first (of family) to attend university. Imagine my surprise when I was told they were both marked for death,” the relative shared.

Acting on an immediate instinct to warn the two, the individual said when Crystal heard she and her mother’s deaths were ordered, she was fearful.

“She said when she went on  the road the boys were looking at her funny like she did something wrong. She said someone died last night and she heard screaming so she opened the door to look and her mother told her to close the door,” the relative told the court.

Struggling to contain emotions at this point, the relative said when Rattray was told by Crystal of the plans for their deaths she said she had not done anything wrong and was “walking around the house praising God”.

“I said to Crystal, ‘you come if Gloria don’t want to come, you come’. She said, ‘mi can’t leave mommy’,” the relative shared.

 Later calls to the house to sway Rattray went unanswered.

“I felt something inside me die when I heard how they died and their heads were severed. They know who did it; they all lived in the same community,” the relative continued.

The court was told that following the deaths every family member was threatened and told they would die in the same manner as Lynch and her mother.

Four of the five men previously accused of the killings are today being sentenced. One of the accused, Sanja Ducally, was last month freed by the court following a successful no case submission by his lawyer.