Four persons found burnt to death in Jamaica

Alwin and Suzan Clarke in happy times

(Jamaica Observer) BRIGHTON, Westmoreland — The Savanna-la-Mar police were up to late Saturday afternoon probing the bizarre death of four people who were burnt beyond recognition in a house here Friday evening.

It is widely speculated that the four, who are believed to be Swedish national Suzan Clarke, 48; her husband, 32-year-old Alwin Clarke, also called Ziggy; his brother 30-year-old Derron Walters; and 31-one-year old Wayne Thompson, also called Bruckie, were shot and then set ablaze by their attackers.

However, commander of the Westmoreland Police Division, Superintendent Lanford Salmon, underscored that the police had not yet determined whether the four were murdered.

However, a police source close to the probe told the Jamaica Observer that a spent shell was found at the scene.

Alwin and Suzan Clarke in happy times

But, according to deputy superintendent at the Westmoreland Fire Deparment, Dave Goldberg, they were summoned to the scene by the police who reported a quadruple murder and arson.

“We heard from the police that they were shot and the house set on fire,” Deputy Superintendent Goldberg said.

He said that around 4:59 the fire department received a call that there was a fire in the Brighton district. On their arrival, a room at a partially completed concrete house was seen on fire.

After cooling down operations, the firefighters stumbled upon the charred remains of the four amongst the rubble.

Errol Clarke, the distraught father of Alwin who described his son as a “jovial guy”, expressed that a concerted effort must be made by all Jamaicans to put a lid on the runaway crime.

The two brothers and the Swedish woman lived in an isolated area beside the sea. Clark’s distraught father is of the view that they lived too far away from everything.

“I don’t think I would like to live there. But I couldn’t tell him what to do,” he bemoaned.

A grieving Brittany Pearce, sister of the two deceased brothers, described them as hard-working construction workers, who hail from Wakefield, Trelawny, who recently moved to live in Westmoreland. She is baffled why anyone would want to kill her siblings.

“I want to make it clear that Derron and Alwin are not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever,” the distressed sister said.

She described Alwin’s wife as a quiet person, and that Tomlinson was his brother’s friend who was a St Elizabeth native.

Meanwhile, her mother was too distressed to speak with the Sunday Observer when our news team caught up with her at the Savanna-la-Mar Police Station yesterday.

About two years ago, another of her sons was shot and killed in the Wakefield Square.