A seven-member jury heard Tuesday that prior to the disappearance and suspected murder of Donna-Lee Donaldson, her police constable boyfriend Noel Maitland and her mother Sophia Lugg shared a very close relationship.

Lugg was the first to testify of 32 witnesses expected to take the stand in the Home Circuit Court trial of Maitland, who is accused of murdering Donaldson in July 2022 and unlawfully burying her corpse. The last time Lugg saw her daughter was on the night of July 11, 2022 when Maitland arrived at their house in St Andrew to pick up Donaldson in a black BMW motorcar. Donaldson was last seen alive at the Chelsea Manor Apartment complex in St Andrew where Maitland lived.

“Yes, of course I knew Noel. He was a friend of my daughter for almost three years at the time. I met Noel at my home. Donna came home one evening with Noel Maitland who was sitting in his car. I didn’t go out there same time to say hi. It was a couple of days after that we started saying hello. He would call me mum. I got sick in early 2022 while in Los Angeles. He would correspond on the phone and he would say, ‘Mum, take your medication’,” Lugg testified.

She told the court that Maitland would call her phone whenever he could not reach Donaldson.

“He would sometimes call me if he was trying to call Donna and not getting through. After I got sick in 2022, I became a bit closer with Noel. He would seem concerned about my health. He would say, ‘mum how you feeling?’ I spoke to Noel earlier in February when I was away. Noel would call to check on me. At one point he was joking about me bringing back a phone for him when I was coming back to Jamaica,” she said.

The trial continues Wednesday, with Lugg taking the witness stand for day two.