A decomposed body of a young girl was found inside a refrigerator in Clarendon on Monday evening. Police believe that the deceased is 13-year-old Christiana High School student Santina Sergeant, who has been missing for some days.
According to police reports, the missing person report was filed by her father on October 3. Santina lived on Riverside Drive in the Baillieston area. Santina is a second-form student at Christiana High, which she had recently begun attending after being transferred from Excelsior High.
A search was launched by officers from the Christiana Police Station on Monday, October 6. During the search, police checked the back of the teen’s home. The search ended tragically when the search party came upon a body in an advanced state of decomposition hidden inside a refrigerator under a zinc sheet at the back of the property. One report indicates that the body was partially burnt, while another suggests that the refrigerator was burnt.
The discovery has left both her family and the school community heartbroken. To help those mourning her death, Principal Leecent Wallace secured grief counselling for students and staff, per a report from the Jamaica Observer.
This missing person case marks the second troubling one in recent days that ended with a body being found in an odd location. Just days earlier in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, 29-year-old bartender Kerrian Malcolm was found dead inside a zipped suitcase dumped in a gully after being reported missing.
Kerrian had left her home on Thursday night, October 2, telling a relative she was going to collect something from someone, but never returned. Her body was discovered on October 4 after residents noticed the suspicious suitcase and opened it using a stick.
Discoveries like these, a child found in a refrigerator and a woman in a suitcase, are not so common in Jamaica, but their occurrence in such close succession has left citizens stunned and heartbroken.