Empty grave still baffles family
Six months after their story was first highlighted, the Jackson family is still in a painful pursuit for answers, seeking the remains of their deceased relative Jimmy Jackson.
Jackson died in 1995, and his family members, including his mother who flew to Jamaica just for his memorial, spent hours chopping through overgrown shrubs this January, searching for the spot where they had laid him to rest in the May Pen Cemetery.
The family visited his grave annually until his mother migrated to England. However, she returned to the island last December for 18 years, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his burial.
After finding the grave with the words ‘RIP
Jimmy’ inscribed on it, they left the cemetery, making commemoration plans.
The following day, they stumbled upon an empty grave that sent them down the road of mourning again.
“I wrote KSAMC (Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation) myself and my lawyer write them also. I don’t get anything from them since then. So what I’m planning to do now, is call the lawyer to find out if he got any information from them. I am planning to go down there also and make them know that I wrote them and I didn’t get a response. It was because of the whole COVID thing mek me cool off,” Jermaine Jackson, Jimmy’s brother told THE STAR.
In January, Jermaine told THE STAR that it was a devastating hit for the family; they are still reeling.
“I am going to them to find out what’s going on now. The family is still frustrated same way! Right now, I can’t even mention anything about my brother or the whole situation when I am talking to my mom,” he said. “My mom birthday was June 9 … and my brother died on June 8, 1995, so you know that she still in pain anytime it come round to her birthday. So we just don’t talk about him (brother). My mom is the person it affected the most… she was basically torn apart.”
Jermaine says this is the worse thing that could ever happen to his mother, as death without closure is like a double death.
“She waited for 18 years then came back down to tomb him and clean up the place and everything. Then when we go back there, everything clean out. So of course, it still a affect har more than everybody else,” he said.
Town clerk Robert Hill told THE STAR that he has not received any letters from either the family or a lawyer.
“I haven’t received any of those letters. I’ll have to check my records. What I’d want to do is invite them in to have a discussion about the matter, because I need to get better particulars,” he said.
Hill added that he has never heard of a similar case.
“I’ll have to go through the cemetery records with the cemetery superintendent. And we do have records here that can guide us,” he said.