WESTMORELAND, Jamaica – This Wednesday would have been two weeks since 16-year-old Tara Dennis, who was shot and killed allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, copped an ice-cream server job at a café in Negril, as her family said she encountered financial woes and had to halt her educational quest.

“Through some circumstances, she seh she want some work because she a guh help me [in life],” Carmen said of her granddaughter who she described as jovial and hardworking.

The teen, who lived at Grants Bush, in Top Road Little London, attended the Little London High School and promised her grandmother to take care of her in the future. However, her life was short-lived as she was gunned down on her verandah by her ex-boyfriend.

The ex-boyfriend is said to be a neighbour.

READ: 16-y-o shot dead allegedly by ex-boyfriend in Westmoreland

The police have since sent out a notice for the ex-boyfriend Anthony ‘Scliffy’ McNeil to surrender.

READ: UPDATE: Police names suspect in 16-y-o Tara Alecia Dennis’ murder

“She lives here with me. Just across the road the person (of interest) lives,” Carmen Dennis told Observer Online.

Her grandmother said Dennis was excited to collect her first paycheck.

Meanwhile, the teen’s aunt, who did not wish to be identified, is pleading with Jamaicans to help bring the perpetrator to justice.

“It heart mi. She nuh deserve this. Mi wah dem find dem. Him wicked,” she said angrily.

She said her niece had plans to return to school with her help and was working to make that a reality.

‘She nuh live nuh life yet. Jealousy and badmind cause it. All she duh a work and try to earn,” the distraught aunt told Observer Online.

Dennis is said to have died at the entrance to her door as she failed in her attempt to escape.

Her aunt told Observer Online that she believes the male companion was the target, but because her niece would have been a witness her life was snuffed out.

-Kimberley Peddie