Two men held, released in hotel murder probe

Two persons who had been arrested in connection with the murder of 27-year-old Amelia Ford, popularly known as ‘Skittle Foot’ were yesterday released after neither of them were recognised as the man the woman was last seen with.

Ford’s body was discovered on Sunday around noon with her throat slit, in a room of Caesar’s Palace hotel at Delph Street, Campbellville.

The woman’s reputed husband as well as the father of her three children were assisting the police with investigations but were released after hotel staff indicated that neither of them was the individual who had checked into the hotel with the now dead woman.

Amelia Ford

This newspaper was told yesterday by a relative that a third suspect, said to be a female, was arrested and is in custody at the East La Penitence Police Station. However, efforts made to confirm this were futile.

According to reports, Ford boarded a minibus after she departed from a group of friends at Lisa’s Bar on Sheriff Street around midnight the evening before.

This newspaper was informed by the hotel’s receptionist that ‘Skittle Foot’ along with a “thin-boned” man, who appeared to be in his 40s, booked the room at 1:55 am.

The man was said to have worn an orange jersey.

The receptionist stated that the man left the hotel some time between 3-3:30am and had told her he was leaving to purchase food but failed to return. She noted that no suspicious sounds were heard prior to him leaving.

At 1:45, as a staffer made a check at the room to indicate that the check-out time was approaching; the woman was seen in her underwear with a sheet thrown over her head.

Assuming that the woman was sleeping, the staff member left without “disturbing her”. She was later discovered dead.

Police, in a press release yesterday, stated that investigations are ongoing.