St Thomas artistes praise citizens after girls are rescued
With the recent kidnappings of two children from Bath in St Thomas, recording artistes who hail from the parish are lauding the residents for playing such a big role in finding them.
“People were devastated and traumatised but they were out. The Bath community and St Thomas residents, they are the ones who deserve all the credit. I congratulate them,” Natty King told THE STAR.
Nine-year-old Phylisa Prussia was reported missing by her mother on October 14, and was found two days later in Arcadia. Winshae Barrett, 13, went missing a few hours after Phylisa was found. She was found in Spring Bank following another two-day search filled with anxiety and fear.
“It is not only the parish of my birth, Bath is my community, a nice place, a tourist area visited by people from all over the world. I have my mother and brother there, but also aunts, nieces and cousins. So of course, what is happening there is disturbing for me and I stayed on my phone night and day trying to get information to assist in the search,” Natty King shared.
Natty King also expressed the belief that “if it wasn’t for the residents maybe we wouldn’t find the children as yet”.
“There are many persons who contributed to finding the girls. Phylisa is a child of my classmate, Winshae is my cousin. My aunt made sure people in the search party had food,” he said, while lauding the people, some walking barefooted, for keeping up the chase.
Meanwhile, fellow St Thomas artiste Bushman lamented the number of women and children being abducted.
“How many people pay attention to the missing girls they used to announce on the screen at Western Union? A lot of Jamaica’s children have gone missing. I think me hear Buju mention over 300 of them and from when. It really needs to be addressed. It’s sad to know that a rapist, based on information given, is out on bail for rape at gunpoint,” he said.
“It is great to know a community can unite for a greater cause and right now, I just worry for the girls with the trauma they are facing. We need to exercise unity, because unity is strength and they need a village to help them through it,” Bushman added.