FALMOUTH, Trelawny —Memories of the horrific 2014 murder of Aliesha Brown, affectionately called “Miss Chin”, a former Muschett High student, are still haunting members of her family and other residents of her community.

The 13-year-old child’s body was dumped in bushes in the Stewart Castle area, not far from the Refuge community where she resided. At the time, speculation was rife that young Aliesha was brutally raped, then killed.

But detectives assigned to the Trelawny Police Division have still not cracked the case despite their enviable record of an excellent clear-up rate over the years.

Aliesha, who was a grade eight student, left home about 6:00 am on Monday, September 29, 2014 to be on time for the morning shift at her school in Wakefield, Trelawny, about 14 miles away.

But, she did not arrive. Her lifeless body was discovered two days later.

The police reported that the body, which was found partially covered with a motor car bumper, was clad in her Muschett High School uniform with stab wounds to the neck and chest, while the face was bashed in by what appeared to be with a stone.

A shoelace was also reportedly tied around the neck.

The grisly find plunged the entire Refuge community — which was established as one of the island’s first free villages after the abolition of slavery — into a state of shock and mourning.

Last week, Stacy-ann Douglas Scarlett, the distraught mother of the slain student, explained that the dreadful incident, which is indelibly etched in her memory, is forcefully intensified each year the anniversary of the killing, or of her birth, come around.

“It still haunts me, it doesn’t go away especially when it comes to the 10th of March which is her birthday. I still have those painful memories and wonder what she would have been like today, what she would have accomplished and, especially when I see her peers because she has peers in the community who celebrate birthdays close to hers. She even has a brother up the top of the community who is her same age and sometimes when I see him I am heartbroken all over,” she lamented.

She revealed that her closest friend also has a daughter who is about Aliesha’s age. Consequently, she doesn’t visit her friend’s home anymore as the sight of her daughter triggers memories of Aliesha.

“And my best friend also has a daughter who is her age and because of that I don’t even visit my friend’s home because when I visit my friend I feel as if I am losing out on something.”

Douglas Scarlett’s mother, Patricia Williams, who enjoyed a close relationship with Aliesha, argued that the anguish stemming from the incident still lingers in her mind.

“We still feel the pain, we still have memories. When her brother passed to go to high school he said he didn’t want to go to Muschett because he didn’t want to remember too much about his sister. He is 14 [years old] now. She was that close to her brother you would always see them together,” the distraught grandmother bemoaned.

“It’s going eight years now since my granddaughter was killed. I don’t even like to talk about it.”

Desiree Gobern, an educator who taught Aliesha during her days at Refuge Primary, said the school community experiences frequent flashbacks of the dastardly incident.

“Ever so often we still rehash the horrific memory of her passing. I still have photos of her…I remember the little face in front of me,” Gobern reflected.

She said it is even more painful because the perpetrator of the dastardly act has not been caught.

“And especially because the murder was not solved, we are still left with a bitter taste in our mouths because there is no closure,” Gobern said.

Similar sentiments were echoed by Aliesha’s mother.

“And to make it worse the case has not been solved. I think they are doing nothing. I think they sweep it under the mat, because first of all, you don’t hear anything again from the police, they don’t call. It is just finished, water under the bridge,” the grief-stricken mother rued.

“Honestly, I know that nothing can bring her back but maybe, just maybe, if the police had found something, if they had captured the culprit it would have given us some sigh of relief or some joy to say well she is gone but we get some form of justice. But nothing, nothing.”

A senior detective who is familiar with the matter explained that it is customary for murder cases to be reviewed over time, but said he was not aware who has since been assigned to the case.

“We review murder cases to see if we can clear them up. So it must have been assigned to somebody. We don’t have cold cases as they do in America,” the investigator argued.

But the mourning grandmother thinks the State needs to treat missing children with the utmost priority.

“Government them not doing enough towards when a child goes missing. If it happens now it is like a nine-day wonder. Me don’t in them things deh because you kill a future. You kill the next prime minister, the next teacher, the next lawyer, the next doctor, the next whatever. You can’t have culprits going around targeting pickney and then the Government sit and doing nothing, nothing at all,” she stated.

“When my granddaughter went missing, the first thing the police asked me is if me sure say she don’t gone with a boyfriend. Dem thing deh don’t right. Me know how my grandchild stay. Me could swear pon me grave about her.”

The Sunday Observer was informed that the attack that ended the Muschett student’s short life also brought an abrupt end to her ambition to become a member of the Jamaica Defence Force.

“She would have been 21 this year. More than likely she would have been in the army because she would have gone on to college and extended her studies and especially how her uncle is in the army that would have influenced her [even] more to join it,” Douglas Scarlett said.

She shared that she is still clinging onto some of her daughter’s possessions for sentimental reasons.

“Me still have especially one specific dress that she has from the last time she went to church, I still have that dress, I don’t throw it away. I try to keep as many things that I can for her,” she declared.