Let us not forget Yetanya 'Princess' Francis, every year
on September 8 and August 23. We made her one of The 82 murdered children of Unit 1012 and Janusz Korczak’s 190+ children where we will not
forget her. Let us remember how she lived on this earth.
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Yetanya
'Princess' Francis (September 8, 2004 to August 23, 2018)
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Police seek
help to catch killer of 14-year-old girl
Published: Sunday
| August 26, 2018 | 12:00 AM
Detectives from the Denham Town Criminal
Investigations Branch are appealing to residents of Trench Town and Arnett
Gardens who may be able to assist them in their investigations into the death
of 14-year-old Yetanya 'Princess' Francis.
Reports are that last Thursday, about 8 p.m.,
Yetanya left home to go to a nearby shop to purchase food.
When she did not return home, a search was launched
by residents of the community but she was not found.
Her nude, partly burnt body was found in a section
of the community by residents about 11:30 a.m. last Friday.
They cops are appealing to persons who may have
seen or heard anything regarding this incident to contact the Denham Town
Police Criminal Investigations Branch (CIB) at 876-948-6443 or 876-922-6441,
Police 119 emergency number, Crime Stop at 311, 811 or the nearest police
station.
INTERNET SOURCE: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20180826/police-seek-help-catch-killer-14-year-old-girl
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Yetanya
'Princess' Francis (September 8, 2004 to August 23, 2018)
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Teen murdered
after going to buy food
August 25, 2018
The Arnett Gardens community is in
mourning following the brutal murder of a teenage girl.
The body of 14-year-old Yetanya Francis,
otherwise called 'Princess', a student of Kingston Technical High School, was
found yesterday morning after she went missing on Thursday night.
Yetanya had left home to purchase food
at a nearby cookshop and did not return.
Her burnt body was found yesterday
morning in a section of the community, known as 12th Street, behind a church.
It is also believed that she may have
been sexually assaulted.
Yetanya's mother, Latoya Riley, said she
was awakened by a vision of her daughter on Thursday night and then noticed the
smell of something burning. But she had no idea it was her daughter.
GRUESOME FIND
"Me never know this
would come at my foot. I see them things here on Facebook and news. I never
knew this would come at my foot," cried Riley. "Them rape
her and burnt her like a dog. But father God. You see and know. You are going
to answer my prayer."
Describing the gruesome find as
horrific, a resident stated that her killers are heartless beings.
"Bwoy dis really
rough ... she was such a beautiful likkle girl. Mankind really wicked eno. The
man dem not even fraid a God because dem dump her at the back of a church
ground. Me feel it to me bone," he said.
Another concerned resident stated that
the child's life could have been saved if some of the community members had
responded to her cries for help.
"People say dem hear
har a scream for rape and murder last night when dem in dem house. Me no sure
why nobody never try investigate or even call the police but see them find her
this morning (yesterday). Jeezas, we have to be our brother's keeper. Not
because your pickney inside you turn deaf ears to other people," she said.
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Lionel
Francis (left) and Latoya Riley break down during a memorial service for their
daughter, Yetanya Francis, a student of Kingston Technical High School, who was
murdered near her home in Arnett Gardens last month. The memorial service for
her life was held yesterday at the Pentecostal Tabernacle Church in central
Kingston by the school.
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Emotional
service for Yetanya Francis
Published:Saturday
| September 8, 2018 | 12:00 AM
Family
members, including the mother and father of slain 14-year-old Yetanya Francis,
teachers and students from the Kingston Technical High School, and members of
the community came out yesterday to offer thanks for a life they all agreed was
cut way too short.
The
congregation of mainly students at the Pentecostal Tabernacle Church on Wildman
Street, downtown Kingston, broke down several times during the service as
tributes flowed. Today, Yetanya would have celebrated her 15th birthday.
On the night
of August 23, Yetanya 'Princess' Francis left home in Arnett Gardens to go to a
nearby shop to purchase food. When she did not return home, a search was
launched by residents of the community, but she was not found. Her nude, partly
burnt body was found in a section of the community by residents at about 11:30
a.m. the following day.
"Gone
too soon is indeed a cliche, but it's a totally apt one in this case,"
said Yetanya's form teacher, Terisa Benjamin, at yesterday's service.
She described the teen as a gem and a star; someone
who was kind and attentive to her education, eager to learn, and caring.
"To
say she will be missed is simply not the right words. Hers was a life cut way
too short, and which has impacted the school, her family and the community in
unimaginable ways," she said.
Her mother,
Latoya Riley, moved by the many words of comfort, had a word of advice for the
perpetrators.
"Turn
yourself into the police. It is not too late for you. My daughter was taken at
your hands, but God has the answers," she said.
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Yetanya
'Princess' Francis (September 8, 2004 to August 23, 2018)
[PHOTO
SOURCE: https://twitter.com/HMEReid/status/1038156758437351424]
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CHALLENGE IN
KEEPING OUR CHILDREN SAFE
There were moving tributes also from the
Education, Youth and Information Minister Ruel Reid, who told The Gleaner
that the country has a challenge in keeping children safe.
"The country has got
very heartless. Crime and violence almost has become endemic in our country,
and while we were a society in peace and love, we cared for each other and
everyone loved his neighbour as himself, now, that appears to be done away
with," said
Reid.
"It's ironic that our
education system seems equally to have created some of the problems with
unattached youth, and people who find alternatives in organised crime and those
nefarious activities, and so one of the things we are trying to do now is to
make sure we create a seamless pathway from early childhood right up to grade
13."
This is so, Reid said, in order to
further educate the nation's children, which will also help turn their fertile
minds away from a life of crime.
Moving tributes were also accepted from
South St Andrew Member of Parliament Mark Golding, in whose constituency
Yetanya lived.
INTERNET SOURCE: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20180908/emotional-service-yetanya-francis
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A distraught Lionel
Francis (second left) expresses his pain after his 14-year-old daughter,
Yetanya, was found dead in Trench Town, St Andrew yesterday, while Pastor
Cheryl Burrell (left), Ackelie Burrell (second right) and St Andrew Southern
Member of Parliament Mark Golding listen keenly. (Photo: Michael Gordon)
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'Hang them'
Father of murdered teen girl advocates capital punishment to deter
criminals
BY RACQUEL PORTER
Observer staff reporter
porterr@jamaicaobserver.com
Saturday, August 25, 2018
The father of
a teenaged girl who was murdered in Trench Town, Kingston, yesterday called for
a resumption of hanging after he viewed her charred remains in the depressed
community.
Lionel
Francis made the call after going to 85 West Road where 14-year-old Yetanya was
found, hours after she went missing.
The Jamaica
Observer learnt that the teenager went to purchase food in the community
minutes after 8:00 pm Thursday. When she did not return home, Francis, who had
just got back to the house from work, went in search of the Kingston Technical
High School student.
Francis, who
last saw his daughter on Tuesday before leaving for work in Negril, said his
search ended at 11:00 am yesterday after residents stumbled upon Yetanya's body
and summoned the police.
“Mi
cyaah believe say a mi little daughter that,” Francis told
the Observer as his voice quaked.
He made his
impassioned plea for the return of hanging to St Andrew Southern Member of
Parliament Mark Golding.
“How
mi supposed to feel? Mi son over there so with mi a while ago and mi not even
know what to tell him. Mi little son, 13-year-old, just change age last week.
How mi explain to him when him reach of age and want to look back on that, Mr
Golding? What me can tell him?
“How
mi a go explain [his sister's death] to him? We have to stop it. We have to
change it, Mr Golding,” Francis said.
“Mr
Golding, chop off the head mi say, enuh. A that mi a say and mi woulda like fi
hear that sound echo in the Parliament, even if it means the last day of yuh
job,” he insisted. “Mi would like to see somebody who
is saying the same thing that I am saying for more than 25 years now.
“Mi
never know hanging, and me a 42-year-old a turn 43 in a couple months from now.
Mi never know hanging and mi never wah to say me know it, but Mr Golding, in
front of everybody who deh yah so and can hear mi voice, if a that it a guh
take for some people to realise some beast weh a walk this land realise say
people have a right, as much as them think they have a right to walk up and
down freely, a it we affi do, Mr Golding.
“Because
me think say after the first head roll... Nobody else won't want for their head
to roll,” Francis said, adding that if hanging is the only
method that will deter perpetrators from committing criminal acts, it should resume.
Insisting
that the brutal slaying of his first child should be the last such killing,
Francis said the authorities should not wait for another tragedy to consider
the resumption of hanging.
“It
have to start from somewhere. People have to stop being hypocritical behind
them big roof. Come inna the ghetto come live it and feel it, and then you can
talk 'bout what is law and what should pass and what is right from what is not
right. You understand? Come feel it yourself,” he reasoned
as he fought to hold back tears.
The father of
three said even if he is crucified for his utterances, he will stand by them.
“Me
live for my youths them, so if me dead a talk over the dead body of my
daughter, me want it to stop,” he cried.
Francis said
he wants a better Trench Town community.
“Mi
cyaah believe say mi live inna this for 40-odd years and mi cyaah walk out and
come in without affi a worry bout mi youths them safety, Mr Golding?”
he asked.
Yetanya's
killing revived memories of the brutal slaying of 17-year-old Mickolle Moulton
in the neighbouring community of Arnett Gardens on August 6 last year.
Mickolle, who
was a Meadowbrook High School student, and her 12-year-old sister were shot in
their bedroom by someone who pointed a gun through a window.
When the
Observer visited the area where Yetanya's body was found yesterday, residents
had converged on the multi-purpose training complex that also houses a church.
Nadia Gray,
whose daughter was Yetanya's classmate, described the teen's death as
horrifying.
“She
is a very nice girl, she nuh give no problem. The teachers nuh have no problem
with her, gruesome man; it callous. Mankind cyaah cruel so. Dem fi think say
dem have mother and sister and nieces, and them have daughters. No man, think
'bout somebody else feelings man, and parents' belly pain,”
Gray said.
She told the
Observer that her daughter got wind of the tragedy yesterday morning but was
not aware that it was Yetanya.
Yesterday,
some of the residents were overheard saying that they heard the teen's cries
for help about 11:00 pm Thursday.
Others, who
were upset that people heard her cries but did nothing, expressed
disappointment.
“Mi
cyaah believe say people hear and dem nuh come out and come search,”
the residents said.
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