Soldier charged in girlfriend’s murder due in court Wednesday
MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Damanice Tyrone Williamson, the 27-year-old member of the Jamaica Defence Force implicated in the murder of his girlfriend, 29-year-old Tanzanya Dunkley, in Three Chains, near here, last Friday, is set to make his first court appearance tomorrow, police say.
A police source told the Jamaica Observer that Williamson was charged with Dunkley’s murder over the weekend after he confessed to killing her during a dispute.
“He was charged with murder Saturday evening and is to face the court on Wednesday,” the source said.
Over the weekend, a police source said Williamson, in confessing to the killing, claimed that a voice told him to carry out the gruesome act.
“They had an argument and the woman decided that she was going to leave [the relationship], and he grabbed her phone. She held on to him. He was saying that a voice told him to kill her. He took the knife and cut her throat,” a police source told the
Observer on Saturday.
Police said the suspect told Dunkley’s 12-year-old daughter that he wanted to speak to her mother and instructed the child to go to an upper floor of the house in Three Chains moments before the murder.
Police said Williamson then slashed Dunkley’s throat before leaving the premises.
On Friday, neighbours told the Observer that about 3:00 pm they heard screams coming from the house and shortly after saw a man, covered in what appeared to be blood, running from the premises.
Leonora Reid, a relative of Dunkley, was among those who converged on the murder scene in Three Chains, Friday.
“The community is saddened and in mourning. Everybody is in mourning, because it is said that this has never happened here. And look at the people around you; everybody coming from near and far, because this is strange to people living in this area,” she said.
Manchester has been haunted by more and more cases of domestic violence in recent times. Due to the severity of crimes linked to it in recent years police have said a special intervention centre for domestic violence is needed in the south-central parish.
