AN emotional Levina Miller said Sunday that on June 21, when she learned of the butchering of four children and their mother in Cocoa Piece, Clarendon, she was prompted to touch the neck of her two-year-old as she couldn’t fathom what could motivate a man to slit the throat of a baby.

On June 21, a relative found 23-month-old Kishawn Henry Jr and his sisters, five-year-old Rafaella Smith, 12-year-old Sharalee Smith, 15-year-old Kimanda Smith and their mother, 31-year-old Kemesha Wright dead inside their house with their throats slashed.

Collectively, they received approximately 100 stab wounds at the hand of their cousin, Rushane Barnett, who last week pleaded guilty to the murders.

The joint funeral for Wright and her children, which invoked an outpouring of emotions from family, friends and strangers, was held at Stuart Hall Auditorium at Clarendon College on Sunday. The attendees, which included Miller, numbered hundreds.

Miller isn’t a close associate of the family, but said she’d had numerous encounters with Wright and, as a mother, she felt the tragedy to her core.

“From it happen mi wake up a night time and think bout it. When you a cut up piece a meat and di knife bounce off and cut you hand, dat hot, inuh. When the incident happened, mi hold mi liikle baby neck and feel it, because mi a imagine which part a my baby neck coulda cut. Oh God, man! When me a come a di funeral mi did affi tek a pressure pill and mi tek two last night.

“I know the kids dem mother and this hard fi live wid. Mi naa go figet them. When I am coming from May Pen, she would normally take the bus wid me and come off dung a Cocoa Piece. Me have a seven-year-old and me have a 10-year-old too. Me also have a baby weh ago be three September. Me think all type of ways that it could be my kids and it could be me too. Mi think everything that is bad about the guy.”

And Yvette Miller told the Observer that she had met the mother in Chapelton where she also met Barnett.

She claimed that Barnett is cursed and had sprung from terrible genes. Miller added that he also allegedly harmed a male member of his family in Trelawny. “Wright should have left him in the cold and not help seek refuge.

… After that bwoy stab a relative in Trelawny, she shouldn’t have any sympathy fi tek him inna har place. Di bwoy very cruel. I don’t know what him involve inna but di bwoy wicked. Him curse. Me not even want no food fi eat.”

Tony Spence, meanwhile, told the Observer that he had never met Wright or her children, but the gruesomeness of the crime had dictated that he attend the funeral.

“I am not a family member. Humanity brought me here. Dem type a murder yah a gruesome murder. When you think about it, you have to be here to see. I can’t find words to express my sympathy. It is terrible, man. These things really happened in our little island, Jamaica, weh we love so much?”

Elizabeth Johnson wanted to see the faces of the children and their mother. Not being allowed to do so was very disappointing for her.

“I am grieving because I have children. I wanted to see the bodies but I couldn’t. They are saying that is only family should view it but they don’t do it properly. They should put it out and let police guard it and allow people to view and leave,” she said.