Donna-Lee Donaldson’s mother and uncle are harbouring mixed feelings as they await this morning’s sentencing of Noel Maitland, the man who was found guilty in January of murder and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse in relation to the July 12, 2022 disappearance of the 24-year-old social media influencer.

Sophia and Neill Lugg say that while Maitland’s conviction offered them justice in the matter, they are convinced that he did not act alone. They want the cop to say who else was involved and, most of all, tell them where Donaldson’s remains can be found.

“So they are just going to sentence him and send him away? They can’t do anything for him to tell me what happened to my child? Telling us what he did won’t bring her back, but that is a closure for us,” the mother told the Jamaica Observer Thursday morning.

“My greatest desire right now is for him to tell us what happened. Maybe Noel will decide to talk about exactly what happened,” she added.

Her brother Neill agreed.

“You mean to tell mi seh Noel a go just go a prison just so?” he said.

“My main focus is that the law didn’t do enough. At the end of the day, Noel alone could not pull this off. There are so many loopholes that were covered. We were saying let’s step back and give the law room to work. During the entire time they did nothing to go beyond what they were seeing,” he charged as he reflected on the day he saw Donaldson leave her house for the very last time before she disappeared.

After an eight-month-long trial, Maitland was found guilty by a seven-member jury.

Donaldson was last seen at the Chelsea Manor Apartment complex in St Andrew where Maitland lived. To convict Maitland, prosecutors relied purely on circumstantial evidence, including Donaldson’s blood that was found on items inside his apartment.

On Thursday the mother made reference to that evidence.

“The blood they found on the curtain and on the shoes was just meant to be. That was just our piece of luck and evidence. If he had known, that curtain would have been taken down. If there was no blood evidence, the camera could show her going in 100 times, they could not hold Noel,” the mother argued.

“The blood that was found there, when they came here and took my DNA samples and flew to The Bahamas and did the father’s own, they realised that the blood in the apartment belongs to Donna-Lee. If she can’t be found, you have to give an account, sir. What happened to my child?” Lugg asked.

She said that even if High Court Judge Leighton Pusey hands down a 100-year sentence on Maitland today in the Home Circuit Court, she will still yearn for closure, as she doesn’t know what exactly happened to her daughter.

“Justice without closure is nothing,” Lugg told the Observer.

“Alright, even if it is not you, why don’t you talk and say who it is? It happened in your apartment. Me being angry for the rest of my life will only make the enemy win because they are going to take my peace away from me. I just want to know what happened. What have you done with the remains? She didn’t just disappear into the clear blue sky. Somebody knows something, so what is so hard?” the mother demanded.

“Jolyan Silvera confessed to manslaughter, but at least we have an idea as to what went down,” she added, referring to the former People’s National Party Member of Parliament who was last week sentenced to 20 years and 10 months for killing his wife Melissa in November 2023.

Lugg said it was her opinion that her daughter’s case is much bigger than just Maitland. According to her, Maitland could not have done the entire thing all by himself and must have had help. In her view, a bit more could have been done to ascertain who some of these people were and put them before the court.

“The truck man who gave evidence in the trial said there was a next man who was in the vehicle with Noel when he went up to Phil’s Hardware. The man was sitting in the front. That same man was in the apartment helping Noel hand down a settee to the truck driver who was downstairs. Who is the next man? I don’t know who did it or how it go, but all I know is that a Noel me a blame. A him come fi mi pickney,” Lugg told the Observer.

DONALDSON… has been missing since July 12, 2022