News

Taxi man found dead

Bobbette Trowers, the sister-in-law of Alphanso Trowers, a taxi driver found dead in Calvary Cemetery in St. Andrew yesterday, is comforted by a relative after she broke down upon seeing his body. - NORMAN GRINDLEY

ALPHONSO TROWERS' FAMILY were concerned about his safety when they could not contact him on Saturday night.

On Sunday afternoon their worst fears were realised when his bullet-riddled body was discovered in the Calvary Cemetery on Lyndhurst Road, St. Andrew.

Trowers, 29, a taxi driver from Lucky Valley district, Bog Walk, St. Catherine, plied the Pembroke Hall to downtown, Kingston route. The police report that residents in the area discovered Trowers body at 1 p.m.

"We call him bout minutes to nine an' him seh him soon come home. When we call him again we nuh get no answer from him an' den him nuh come een last night. So dis mawning we call him frien' dem an' dem start look fi him. Later in a di day dem call an' seh dem fin' a body an dem a go look if a fi him. Dem call we back an' seh a him," said Bobbette Trowers, Alphanso's sister-in-law.

Preliminary investigations by the Denham Town police have uncovered that Trowers was reportedly approached by four men while he was parked downtown on Saturday night. They said he spoke to the men for a short while and left with them.

Investigators said the white Toyota Corolla station wagon licensed PB4843, driven by Trowers has not been seen since. They said he was shot twice, once in the right side of the head and once in the left torso. The police are also theorising that he was killed elsewhere and dumped in the cemetery.

Bobbette and other relatives on the scene wept uncontrollably and at one point had to be consoled by several of the taxi drivers there. The cabbies expressed concern for their safety.

"We fraid because to what a gwaan yah now we nuh know wha we a go do. We jus' feel like seh dem a target we," one said.

This is the second body to be discovered in the Calvary Cemetery in less than a week. On Tuesday the burnt remains of an unidentified man was found there.