MAY PEN, Clarendon — Derrick Rogers is beyond himself. He’s trying to hold it together but the circumstances surrounding the death of his first child, Derricka Rogers, are rapidly consuming him inside.

“Mi daughter was nice and loving, always smiling. Her room is now empty and where she worked, the desk is now empty. Nobody is sitting in her chair because everybody a look say Derricka a come back to work. There is no Derricka to come back to work,” he said mournfully.

He’s thinking about packing up and leaving the Gravel Hill, Clarendon, home he shared with her as the memories are simply too much to bear.

According to the police, Derricka left home Tuesday, May 27 to visit her boyfriend and was last seen at Milk River Bus Park in the parish capital, May Pen.

“Derricka went missing from Tuesday. We make a report at the station and the station contacted the youth [her married boyfriend] and him say yes, him see Derricka on Tuesday at May Pen and gave her $30,000 and him nuh see or hear back from her. We keep on calling the phone but no answer. I went back to the station Wednesday night and made a report. I told them that I hear say the guy down a Duncans so mek wi pick him up,” the distraught father said, his voice laden with grief.

He said the police called the boyfriend who repeated the same story about when he last saw Derricka.

Rogers, a taxi driver, said he last saw his daughter just before 5:00 pm last Tuesday before he took passengers to Mandeville. He said when he didn’t see her on Wednesday, he realised something was amiss. Several calls to her cellphone went unanswered, which triggered alarm bells as that was unusual.

He told the Observer that on Wednesday, May 28 he went to the police station to officially report his daughter missing. He said he urged them to question the person who had reportedly seen her last but was told there was no legal basis on which to do so. A female relative, convinced Derricka would show up, also cautioned Rogers against doing anything that would jeopardise the marriage of the man with whom Derricka was involved.

But Rogers said the circumstances surrounding his daughter’s death and how the Milk River Police handled the case have left him hurting badly.

“You see when we go the yard where the youth used to stay, we see two manhole. When we get permission to access the property, we call the owner and she said four years ago was the last time she did any work on the building so nothing new not supposed to be there,” he said.

According to Rogers, police and residents saw a fresh layer of concrete sealing a pit.

“The police made a call and them say they cannot pull the pit until tomorrow and mi get mad and start cuss and seh, ‘We ah go burn down the house.’ A so dem say, ‘Alright, we will open it.’ We say, ‘Alright, if them pull it and she not in there we have to buy back the cement — and we have no problem with that.’ From we pull the pit a di bag we see with the girl inna it. That cut me up bad, bad. Mi know seh a she. From we go there we just connected to the pit, so you see when them tell me say we couldn’t open the pit until tomorrow, if you cut mi you nuh find no blood. Mi tell dem seh, ‘A now mi want her,’ and then the people start gwaan bad. Mi know seh she in there, because me feel it. She in there from Tuesday and mi decide seh mi want her now, so a so dem open it,” said the broken father as he chronicled the chilling details of how his daughter’s body was recovered.

“When they took her out there’s a scandal bag in there with her bag and clothes. They never want take it out and I told them to take it out because we need to know what’s in the bag. When they took out di bag, is her papers inna it. Her old school ID and TRN in there, even her house key and the key for the office that she work in it. She even had a small bag with Stayfree [feminine hygiene product] in there and dem ting deh hurt! Mi feel hurt over it,” said Rogers.

He said everything in Derricka’s room remains untouched. He is afraid to enter.

Her uncle, Christopher Williams, was visibly shaken on Monday.

“I have the voice note my niece send to my sister. Mi still a shake and mi still no come to because I can’t believe a so dem deal with mi niece,” he said.

Everel Morris, CEO of Net Merge and Derricka’s former boss, is calling on the authorities to speed up their investigation into the matter and hopes to see greater support from the political directorate.

“Mi feel cut up and hurt and angry. I am here to give support to the family as she used to work for me. It seems these kinds of murders are trending. Derricka is from humble beginnings and so we don’t see the support from the ministers and MPs [Members of Parliament] condemning this incident because she’s not rich. We need the support of the authorities, and we hope and pray these things end; the only way to do that is to apply maximum support,” he said.