PAINFUL MURDER OF A SEX WORKER

Everybody loved ‘Diamond’, says head of foundation that helps ladies of the night BY ALICIA DUNKLEY-WILLIS

SHE was well known in the streets where she worked, and was loved by some of the toughest women there. To the men who paid for her services she was just a body, but to those women 28-year-old Shandeka Campbell, also known as Diamond, was an ambitious single mother with a big heart who helped them plan their finances so they could own their own homes.

She even bought her own car and was making plans to graduate from the streets. However, before those dreams could be realised her life was cruelly snuffed out within the confines of a Corporate Area “guest house” where she was last seen with a ‘client’ on the evening of Friday, December 4.

Among those left reeling from her brutal murder are the members of Pursued International Foundation who had come to know and love Campbell.

Stacy Ann Smith, director and founder of the two-yearold organisation focused on raising awareness about the ills of human trafficking and conducting outreach targeting commercial sex workers, says the group is still struggling to digest the news.

“I actually Whatsapped her two weeks ago prior [to her death] because I was trying to work out something for her for Christmas. I was doing it secretly. She didn’t know because we don’t make promises to them. One of the things our trainers taught us is, ‘Do not make them promises because life can happen and you are not able to and you have broken trust.’ So, I didn’t tell her that we were doing something for her son,” Smith told the Jamaica Observer.

She said the group, which prior to the pandemic would meet with the women to pray on a biweekly basis, had not been able to because of the COVID-19 restrictions but had been keeping in contact via the telephone. They had also been delivering care packages to the ladies but had been unable to have their prayer and rap sessions on scheduled nights as before.

The fact that Diamond had reached out to ask for them to return, just days prior to her death, has been like a body blow to the members of the organisation, making them even more determined to continue their drive to help women like her out of harm’s way.

“You know what breaks my heart, she said to me ‘When are you guys coming to see us? Unnuh can jus put on a mask and come ennuh.’ Two weeks ago she told me to come and I never went; it reminds you why you need to be out there, even though it’s not comfortable. Nothing like death to give you perspective,” Smith told the Observer.

Diamond, she said, was just like her name. “Everybody loved her; she was loved. And when multiple girls can say you were loved that means something. I told you about the animosity on the streets, and some of the toughest girls I know out there liked her. One of the girls who likes nobody, liked her,” Smith said sorrowfully.

Although Diamond will never know that her request for them to “come” was granted they went anyway for those left behind, and the scene is one that will forever be seared into Smith’s memory.

“Never once has the pain of ministry hit home as much as it did [Saturday]. Reading her name on the screen of my phone in a news article and knowing who she was took the wind out of me. This woman that was just a fact in a news story was a sister and dear friend. Hugs and tears flowed freely as we joined in the mourning, not as elite bystanders but as fellow human beings united by a common experience. All the fears and logistics that kept us away, melting in the face of real terror, grief, guilt and loss,” Smith shared on her blog.

A further point of pain, Smith said, was that although Diamond’s colleagues were “terrified” and “grieving” they are still on the streets, having no other way to provide for their children.

In the meantime, she said society needs to rethink how they view women like Diamond.

“Let’s say tomorrow morning Diamond was still alive and she said, ‘I’m done doing this, I am going to go to the call centre and apply for a job,’ what does she put on her resume after she puts her name? What does she put for experience?

“Who is going to give her a reference? They are excluded socially and they are aware of it. It’s real people with real issues. This has made me and my team rethink. The hit of it reminded us that we need to be out there,” she told the Observer.

Police investigators are, in the meantime, working to ascertain the identity of the male with whom Diamond was last seen. A motive for the murder has not been established.