Sister remains hopeful months after elderly woman vanished at church convention
FOUR MONTHS after 61-year-old St James resident Joyce Fearon went missing during a church trip in Christiana, Manchester, her sister Nerissa Cassells is holding fast to hope of the senior citizen’s eventual return.
“There is still no news, but I won’t give up hope. I am keeping it alive until I find her or her body. Something has to give a break in this, and nobody is going to stay silent forever. Somebody must have seen something,” Cassells told The Gleaner on Thursday.
Fearon, a resident of Barnett Oval in Montego Bay, went missing on Heroes’ Day, October 16, 2023, while reportedly accompanying a group from the Faith Temple Assembly of God, of which she was a member and which is also based in Montego Bay.
The group was attending a women’s convention held in Christiana, Manchester, at the time.
The missing woman, who also goes by the name Maxine, is described as being five feet three inches tall and about 190 pounds, with low-cut, white hair.
At the time of her disappearance, she was clad in a white blouse and a red skirt, and had reportedly left her personal belongings behind at the venue.
Cassells suggested that her sister’s personality shift, caused after having suffered two strokes in the year before her disappearance, may have played a role in her wandering away from her church group.
“Since she got the last stroke, she was very feisty. The lady who would do her laundry and take care of her clothes, she would say to her, ‘Ms Joyce, that dress has a spot, don’t wear it’, and she [Fearon] would just kiss her teeth, fan her off, and walk off.
If she has that attitude, you don’t want to pay her any mind, although persons know that she has been through the stroke. But that wasn’t her. That’s what they should look at,” said Cassells.
In outlining the family’s efforts to find her sister, to date, Cassells said that one possible lead fizzled after the individual requested a reward for his alleged information.
“When it [Fearon’s disappearance] had just happened, this guy had messaged me that someone picked her up in a car and he had her at his house, but then when we were talking, the person was not giving me much information, so I told my cousin to trace where he is. The cousin called the man, [and] he made a big excitement out of it, and I didn’t hear from him again,” said Cassells.
“A reward wasn’t being offered, as such, but at the end, the person was asking what is in it for him. I was, like, ‘If I get her back, everything will be for you’, but I guess he took it the wrong way and then he talked about how he didn’t want to get mixed up in it. Because I love my sister, I would grab at any straw,” Cassells added.
It is also understood that analysis of video footage from Albert Town, Trelawny, to verify reports that Fearon may have been spotted in that community, failed to provide any meaningful information as to the senior citizen’s location.
The Christiana Police Station in Manchester, where the disappearance was reported, indicated that there was no update on the case.
Anyone who may have information leading to the return of Joyce Fearon is being asked to call her sister, Nerissa Cassells, at 876-324-9259, the 119 police emergency number, or the nearest police station.