Jamaica is, no doubt, a land of many mysterious happenings. Due to popular demand, after our initial “10 ‘unsolved’ Jamaican mysteries”,  OBSERVER ONLINE has decided to compile 10 more that raised eyebrows.

1. The case of the missing beach – In July 2008, 250 truckloads of pristine white sand was stolen from the 400 metre stretch of the Coral Springs Beach in Trelawny. The beach was earmarked to be part of a new resort complex by Felicitas Limited but the theft of the sand put construction of that site on hold.  Felicitas sued two competing hotel operators and an aggregates company for losses due to the illegal mining of the sand, but the defendants denied any wrongdoing in a civil case that appears to be still ongoing. Prior to that case, five persons were charged with simple larceny and conspiracy to steal the sand, but the charges were dropped in February 2011 because the main witness refused to testify after reportedly being threatened. Despite the brazen theft being under the spotlight, no one has been punished for the crime. It still remains a mystery. Who stole the beach?

2. Who killed Diane Smith? – Immaculate High School student Diane Smith’s body was found in a gully in the Constant Spring area of Kingston 8. Smith had been sexually assaulted and murdered while on her way to school in 1983. Dennis ‘Shorty’ Jenkins was later arrested and charged with the sexual assault and rape of the minor, but after spending more than two years behind bars, Jenkins was found not guilty by a 12-member jury. Rumours abounded that Jenkins had been whisked off to the US months after his acquittal only to be murdered and his dismembered body sent back to Jamaica in a barrel. However, Observer journalist, the late Pat Roxborough-Wright employed enterprise and found ‘Shorty’ years later and conducted an interview which disproved claims of his macabre demise. The Diane Smith murder remains unsolved and questions remain as to who is responsible for her death?

3. Dead body in the lawyer’s house – Police were called to the St Andrew home of attorney Patrick Bailey in the wee hours of September 30, 2016 after the body of Germaine Junior, a 51-year-old construction worker, was found with stab wounds and a single gunshot wound to the head inside the attorney’s living room. Bailey was not treated as a suspect by police investigators after he told them he stumbled on the body around 4:00 am after awaking from slumber. Police reports suggested that they were no signs of forced entry. That murder remains unsolved. Who killed Germaine Junior?

4. Ananda Dean – After 13 years the blood curling murder of 11-year-old Ananda Dean has still not been solved. The child’s decomposing body was found dumped in the Belvedere area of St Andrew. Dean’s death so shocked the nation that an alert mechanism that supplied information about missing children was implemented in her memory. Dean is only one of thousands of children who have gone missing in Jamaica and though the majority of missing children are found, many have never been seen or heard from since their disappearance.

5. Jasmine Deen– Where is she? The University of the West Indies student who is visually impaired went missing on Thursday, February 27, 2020 and was last seen in the Papine Square area of St Andrew around 9:00 pm, dressed in a white blouse and blue jeans. She has not been seen or heard from since. The police had arrested a person of interest in her disappearance in March 2020 but the suspect was eventually released. Dean’s disappearance remains a mystery.

6. The Peter King ‘tapes’ – After trade ambassador Peter King’s gruesome killing in his St Andrew home in March 2006, rumours abounded that the police had seized several video recordings containing high ranking officials engaged in compromising salacious acts. The tapes have never been released to the public after defence attorneys in the trial of the murder accused petitioned the courts to seal the content of the video recordings. Police officers, politicians and entertainers were all said to have been caught on camera in compromising positions. What has happened to the Peter King tapes if in fact they are any? Sheldon Pusey, a 23-year-old man, was eventually found guilty and sentenced to life for King’s murder.

7. Green Bay killings – Was it murder or a shootout? What really happened at Green Bay in St Catherine? On January 5, 1978, 14 men from the community of Southside in Parade Gardens, downtown Kingston, were involved in a controversial shooting close to a Jamaica Defence Force shooting range in Green Bay. The military reported that the men were surprised after they were collecting guns that were being smuggled into the country and were killed in a shootout. However, residents of Southside protested the killings and claimed the men were taken out to Green Bay under the guise of being offered jobs. They were killed execution style by agents of the state, the residents claimed. Some of the men escaped but five of them – Norman “Gutto” Thompson, a former national footballer for Santos football club; Glenroy Richards; Trevor Clarke; Winston “Saddle Head”  Hamilton and Martin Hamilton – were killed. An inquiry was launched into the incident but all the JDF men who were involved were eventually found not guilty.

8. Dog soup? – In the 1980s, business boomed for some vendors of cow cod soup at a popular spot on Half Way Tree Road. The soup hit the spot for many especially on the weekend when the lines were long. However, business for those vendors came crashing to a halt after reports surfaced that several dog bones were found buried close to the spot where the soup was being peddled. The giant soup pots went missing and many persons who were loyal customers of the delicious fare wondered silently if it was indeed dog meat that made the soup so tasty. It appears they will never know the answer.

9. The missing photographer – Since he went missing in October 2015, nothing has been heard from nor has anyone seen popular photographer Niketa Thomas of Nickfotoworks. His mysterious disappearance has left many questions unanswered and resulted in his family and friends begging for closure. Many searches were launched in an effort to uncover clues as to his whereabouts but have come up empty. He was last seen in an area close to the community of Cassia Park in St Andrew when he disappeared. Where is Thomas?

10. Who slaughtered Bogle? – There is no doubt that Gerald Levy, the man more popularly known as ‘Bogle’, is the father of dance in the dancehall idiom of Jamaican entertainment. Bogle was gunned down at a gas station on Constant Spring Road in January 2005 after leaving the popular Weddy Weddy dance. Bogle was among five persons traveling in his Ford F-150 truck when two men travelling on a motorbike opened fire, shooting all five occupants. Bogle and another man, Tony Reid, died as a result of the shooting, while the others survived the ordeal. After some 17 years, Levy and Reid’s murders have not been solved even though many theories abound as to who was behind the attack.