POLICE Commissioner, Dr Carl Williams yesterday disclosed that Jamaica says USA to join hunt..... Americans offer help in tracking missionaries’ killers

 BY KIMONE FRANCIS Observer staff reporter francisk@jamaicaobserver.com  Tuesday, May 03, 2016 

POLICE Commissioner Dr Carl Williams yesterday disclosed that Jamaica is receiving help from the United States to track down the killers of two American missionaries whose bodies were found in a remote part of Boscobel, St Mary, between Saturday and Sunday.

Police report that 48-year-old Randy Hentzel and 53-year-old Harold Nichols rented motorcycles in Ocho Rios, St Ann, and went on a trail on Saturday. Residents later stumbled upon Hentzel’s body after 12:00 pm, face down with the hands bound. Nichols’ body was found sometime after 2:00 pm on Sunday with his head bashed in.

Police Commissioner Dr Carl Williams addressing a news
conference yesterday on the killing of two American
 missionaries. He said the Jamaican police were doing
 everything possible to identify and apprehend the
 criminals responsible. Bryan Cummings 

“A high-level investigation has been launched into this matter. Residents have pledged to co-operate fully with the authorities to ensure the perpetrators of this atrocious crime are sought and prosecuted,” Commissioner Williams told journalists yesterday during a hastily called press conference at his office, adding that “expert” investigators have been assigned to the case.

While Williams did not state specifically who the expert investigators were, Joshua Polacheck, the counselor for public affairs at the US Embassy in Kingston, told the Jamaica Observer last night that they would likely be law enforcement officers from multiple US agencies in Jamaica, among them the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the US Marshals Service; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

At his press conference, the police commissioner said that investigators were still ascertaining the basic facts of the case. “Our investigators are on the ground doing their canvassing as we speak…,” he added.

The commissioner said that, while no motive has been established for the killings, he is assuring the nation and the international community that the perpetrators will be brought to justice.

“Yesterday, I called the United States ambassador to Jamaica to update him on the investigation and to assure him that we are doing everything possible to identify the criminals responsible for these brutal acts,” said Williams.

Added to that, he said an autopsy has been scheduled for today to ascertain how the missionaries were killed. more