The atmosphere in Rocky Point, the popular Clarendon fishing village, was pregnant with gloom Friday morning as residents tried to process the gruesome murders of three members of a family Thursday night.

Police have apprehended the suspect, a fisherman accused of chopping to death his mother, brother, and a cousin in what some say was a simmering family dispute.

The victims have been identified as 32-year-old fisherman Lynval Henry, domestic helper and vendor Annette Lindo, and vendor Ingrid Keisha Lindo.

Resident Charles Sinclair shared that the suspect has always been seen by residents as a hard-working individual who had felt betrayed by people close to him.

Relating an incident that he said occurred two years ago, Sinclair told the Jamaica Observer that the accused man had a dispute with a family member over money that turned violent.

“From that time people started to realise something was wrong,” Sinclair said.

He also claimed that the community was aware that the suspect had frequent disagreements with a Haitian woman, said to be his wife, and with whom he shares a child.

“Every minute them fight, but he loved her. Both of them live all over the place. Something went wrong and he left the girl and came back home. He told his mother not to let the girl come to the yard. The mother loved the baby and she felt that if the child’s mother doesn’t come to the house, she can’t get to protect the baby,” Sinclair said.

“He went to sea and was telling the youth dem that he got a vision that everybody in his yard was dead. They had to carry him home from sea,” Sinclair said.

Sinclair claimed that on Thursday the man cooked dinner for the family.

“He came up and cooked and everybody ate. In the night his mother was calling on the phone to tell someone that he was outside with a machete and he was behaving strangely. His mother called the person to come and talk to him, but that person was afraid,” he said.

Winston Simms, a cousin of the suspect, told the Observer that he fell ill as soon as he heard the news of the triple murder.

“My mother and his father are brother and sister. I definitely don’t like what happened. I had to take pressure pills because I was sleeping and they woke me and told me that him kill him mother, kill him brother and him cousin. I cried. Three people are dead, but I am really sorry for him,” Simms said.

Councillor Winston Maragh (Jamaica Labour Party, Rocky Point Division) reacted to the incident with shock.

“There were no signs of anything happening to him days before. He is a fisherman who would go out and come back. As a matter of fact, he started to build a foundation for himself to try and come out of his mother’s house. Something happened that caused him to snap,” Maragh said.

This spot is said to be where the suspect chopped his mother to death in Rocky Point, Clarendon, Thursday night. Photos: Karl Mclarty

Councillor Winston Maragh (Jamaica Labour Party, Rocky Point Division) looks at the scene of Thursday’s triple murder in disbelief. Photos: Karl Mclarty

Neighbours at the scene of the murders of three members of a family in Rocky Point, Clarendon, on Friday morning. The suspect is accused of killing his mother, brother, and a cousin on Thursday night.