Family of slain Moleson Creek woman faults cops for ignoring reports

The family of Jennifer Thomas maintains that had police at the Moleson Creek outpost taken their reports of threats seriously then she would still be alive.

Thomas, 49, was found with her throat “cut open” on her kitchen floor last Tuesday. She was home alone when she was reportedly attacked by her son-in-law Ashton Henry some time before 6.15pm.

Henry was subsequently discovered in his house,

Jennifer Thomas

about a three-minute walk away, with wounds to his wrists and behind his ankles.

According to Zelina Thomas, several weeks earlier, she awoke in the early hours of the morning to find Henry over her, holding a blade against her neck. It was after midnight in the small Moleson Creek community and Thomas’ husband was out drinking.

Henry, who had recently been released from prison for chopping her brother, is her older sister’s reputed husband.

However, the woman said after three visits to the outpost, where she all but begged for something to be done about Henry, she gave up. “Me na bin know wa to do,” Zelina, 22, said. “Me na had de money to travel go de big station [Springlands Police Station].”

Deputy Commander of Police B Division Christopher Griffith, speaking with Stabroek News via telephone, said that the outpost located at Moleson Creek is an immigration base. These bases, according to him, do not deal with reports of a criminal nature. The Thomas family, Griffith said, should have gone to the Springlands Police Station and made a report. “And in the case where they were not satisfied with what was happening and how police were handling a case, then they could have called me or the Commander Steven Merai. We are always willing to help as much as we can,” Griffith said.

More than a month ago, Zelina recalled, she and her five children were home alone. Her house cannot be locked properly and it was easy for Henry to enter. “Me big son see he coming but he na think nothing because he know he, you know,” Zelina related, “and all ah dem children start scream when me start fight with [Henry] and de cutlass.”

Zelina alleged that several nights before Henry appeared in her house, he had threatened her.

It was the man’s habit, she said, to threaten her and family members. Henry, she said, was always warning them to “be careful” and telling she and other relatives “ah gon chop out you neck.”

The morning after the attack, she explained, she went to the police outpost at Moleson Creek where she reported what had happened. The woman said she was told that someone would be sent to look in to the matter.

This was the same line police gave her the following three times she went to report the matter.

“Up to now dem na send no body,” Zelina said.

In later weeks, Zelina said, the problem between Henry and her family escalated and more reports were made to the outpost about the man. Zelina said that Henry did not like her mother in particular because he believed that Jennifer Thomas encouraged his reputed wife, Janice, “to do wrong things.”

In a press release after Jennifer Thomas was killed, police said that Henry was suspected to have ingested a poisonous liquid in an attempt to commit suicide. He is still patient at the New Amsterdam Hospital.

Henry, 35, was charged more than a year ago for wounding his brother-in-law, Ryan Thomas. He was sentenced to eight months in prison and was released in March.

During this year there have been several cases where families believe that the police’s failure to take their complaints seriously contributed to the deaths of their relatives.