ST. ANN, JAMAICA: MYSTERY! Puzzle as four St Ann residents go missing after fire at their home

 BY RENAE DIXON Observer staff reporter dixonr@jamaicaobserver.com  Wednesday, November 18, 2015    

LIME HALL, St Ann — The mystery surrounding the disappearance of four people, including a seven-year-old girl, deepened yesterday after the police and firemen said that they found no human remains at their fire-ravaged home at the end of a long search.

Fifty-seven-year-old Joseph Lynch, 43-year-old Lascelles Lynch, Ruth Lawrence, and seven-year-old Rimeka Haynes went missing on Saturday after fire razed their six-apartment dwelling in the quiet community. Residents said that Joseph, a farmer, lived at the premises while the others were merely visiting.

Residents said the fire, which also destroyed two other buildings on the premises, was detected at about 3:00 am Saturday.

Seven-year-old Rimeka Haynes is among the missing four.

Since then there has been no sign of the four people, which was left residents both puzzled and concerned.

Yesterday, Superintendent Wayne Cameron said the fire at the house is a suspected case of arson and that the search for the missing four would be expanded beyond the immediate surroundings of the house.

"We are expanding the search. The men from the fire service, they are going wider and wider as we move away from the building itself," said Cameron, who heads the St Ann Police.

"This property is about 60 acres spreading all the way back to St Ann's Bay," he explained, noting that the search started within a quarter-mile radius of the house in an effort to find clues. The property is mostly pimento trees.

"There may be caves on the property; there may be stone pits and so on, so we are trying to identify those areas," he said, noting that residents are helping with the search. more