A 29-year-old bartender in Savanna-la-Mar was found dead inside a suitcase days after she went missing. Kerrian Malcom disappeared after she left her home last Thursday to meet someone. Kerrian did not disclose the identity of the person she was meeting with her family. She only informed a relative that she was headed to collect an item from the individual.
When she did not return, relatives reported her missing the following day. Two days later, her body was found in a zipped suitcase dumped in a gully in the Gully Banks community.
The discovery has caused her family to plunge into deep grief, as it comes after the loss of several other loved ones. Kerrian’s father, Delroy Malcolm, shared that he has now lost three children to violence within months, two sons earlier this year, and now his daughter in the most unimaginable way.
“It is not even three months and I am looking to bury another one,” he said. He expressed that he has been so overcome with grief that he has not eaten since the discovery. He pointed out others in the family who are struggling to cope with the incident, including his wife, who suffers from hypertension, his daughter and his youngest son. Delroy and his wife both had seven children together before violence took three of them away.
According to the family, Kerrian, who operated a small bar, had been receiving threats following a break-in at her workplace. A rented poker box had been stolen, and although the incident was reported to the police, her father indicated that she became wary after believing that police officers sometimes leaked reports back to the very people being accused.
Despite the threats, she continued to go about her daily life, determined to provide for her son and help her family. Delroy expressed that his daughter was not a troublesome person.
Before the burglary incident, Kerrian’s boyfriend had been killed in a police-related encounter at her home, another painful episode that cast a shadow over her life. Still, it was indicated that she remained focused and responsible, not one to involve herself in conflict or disputes.
When she went missing, police had planned to send a search team, but it was residents who ultimately discovered the suitcase. Suspicious of its presence in the gully, they used a stick to unzip it, only to recognise her by her foot. The police were called immediately, and the body was removed.
For the Malcolm family, grief has become an unwanted companion. Delroy listed the loved ones he has buried over the years: his mother, mother-in-law, father-in-law, two sons, and now his daughter. “It’s rough, man,” he said quietly. “Death just keeps following us.”