ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica— Police say a suspect has been arrested after an exotic dancer was stabbed to death early Saturday morning at a nightclub in Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth.

Police identified her as 34-year-old Nickesha Francis-Monfret, a resident of Queen’s Way Yallahs, St Thomas. Sources confirmed her stage name as ‘Chocolate’.

Preliminary reports are that about 2:00 am the dancer was at the Spendless nightclub when there was an altercation with a man and a knife was used to stab her.

She was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Head of the St Elizabeth police, Superintendent Coleridge Minto said detectives processed the crime scene and, acting on intelligence, tracked the suspect to a premises in Santa Cruz where he was arrested.

“The quick actions of the police led to the arrest of the suspect. He was picked up, and the knife believed to have been used was also seized,” Minto said.

The incident has increased the number of murders so far this year in St Elizabeth to seven when compared to 18 for the corresponding period last year.

St Elizabeth is among the police divisions with the lowest murders recorded so far this year. Trelawny has so far recorded six murders, and Portland has recorded seven.

— Kasey Williams