ST MARY, Jamaica — The St Mary police are investigating the alleged suicide of a man whose family members allege that he slashed his throat after a week of behaving strangely.

Dead is 51-year-old Karl Palmer, a labourer who lived in Esher Gully in the parish.

Relatives told OBSERVER ONLINE that Palmer began cutting himself with a cutlass and knife when he returned home from work on Tuesday.

His common-law wife, 62-year-old domestic helper, Jennifer Beavers, said she pleaded with him to stop, but he ignored her and set fire to a curtain inside the house.

Beavers reportedly called for help and neighbours assisted in extinguishing the fire and called the police.

Upon their arrival, Palmer was seen near his bed with what appeared to be a wound to his throat.

He was taken to the Port Maria Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

According to Beavers, last week Palmer threatened to kill himself and began destroying items in the house, but nothing was done to get him help. It is a decision, she said, that she now regrets.