By TAMARA DELANEY
Freeport News Reporter
tdelaney@nasguard.com
IT'S BEEN TWO YEARS — Stephen Burrows (right), the father of slain Bahamian college student Joseph Burrows, stands with his wife, Moreen, and their grandchild, Joseph's four-year-old daughter, Tajana, behind a portrait of the young man. In November 2004, Joseph was found brutally murdered outside of Mandeville, Jamaica, five days after he went missing. The Burrows family is now offering a $500,000 (Jamaican) reward for any leads in the case which is in its second year of investigation.
The family of a 22-year-old Bahamian college student who was brutally murdered in Mandeville, Jamaica, in November, 2004 is now offering a $500,000 (Jamai-can) reward for any leads in the case – a case that still remains under full investigation.
The body of Joseph Burrows, a medical student at the Northern Caribbean University, was discovered with a bullet wound to his head in a deserted field just outside of Mudleak, Mandeville, five days after he went missing.
It was reported that Burrows had left his apartment to get food for his then two-year old daughter, Tajana. His wife, Altamarae, had reported him missing to police Saturday night after he never came home.
Joseph's father, Stephen Burrows, in an exclusive interview with The Freeport News yesterday, confirmed that the reward is being offered, which he said should bring about some stimulation to a motionless and painful case.
"Two years from this very date, November 7, my only son was murdered. It's been two years of a full investigation, and no leads and absolutely no healing for my family," said Burrows.
"We have established a reward of $500,000 Jamaican dollars ($65,000 Bahamian), for any leads in his case. We are hoping that there is some honest person in Jamaica who does know something because we believe that there are some persons who may have some little bit of information.
"Though it may seem insignificant we are asking them to come forth because every little counts."
Determined to find justice in a tragic situation, Burrows said that since his son's death, he has encountered a lot of peculiar behaviour and actions by Jamaican authorities.
"The Jamaican police were claiming that he was not shot, but it contradicted what we had seen when my family and I saw Joseph during his autopsy," Burrows revealed. "When we went to the morgue, we saw where he had been shot in the right side of his skull. He died as a result of one bullet which grazed the side of his head."
Burrows believes that the Jamaican police have some alternative agenda regarding his son's murder, citing the island's extreme rate of crime.
"They don't want to compromise because there is an exceedingly high increment of violence in that country and many of these crimes are not reported," he said. "The statistics about the rate of crime in Jamaica have been muted by authorities there."
Burrows said he does not know if Joseph's murder was an accidental or if he was singled out.
"It's very difficult to say whether or not the persons who murdered him knew him or not. It is quite possible that indeed they knew him, but we don't know if that is the case because there is just so much random crime in Jamaica. We don't know."
Burrows also revealed that there is currently no death certificate for Joseph.
"We do not have a death certificate for our son," he said. "The coroner wants to say that he was not shot, which is ridiculous since there were witnesses who saw the bullet wound on the side of his head. It's all apart of keeping their image in good order."
Although the police seemed very interested in the case when Joseph went missing, Burrows said that the cooperation ended when it was time to search for him.
"By Sunday afternoon, a few hours after I was informed by his wife, Altamarae, that he was missing, I was in Mandeville searching for him," he said. "We didn't get any assistance from the police. They treated this as a missing person's case, not with the intensity that he could have been murdered."
The father of the slain man said he is perplexed by the immobile state the case has been in since its two years, pointing out that Jamaican authorities had strong leads from the beginning of the investigation.
Two years ago, Jamaican Police Press Liaison Officer Corporal Rovan Sammanas had released a statement about the investigation, confirming that investigators had investigated a video surveillance of a black male withdrawing money from an Automatic Teller Machine using Joseph's ATM card around the time of his death.
"It's amazing to me that they have this information and nothing has been done. They say they can't find those suspects" said Burrows. "They no longer update us on Joseph's case."
Burrows said he and his family have kept Bahamian authorities advised of their actions as well as submitted information to Jamaican police and the Bahamian government regarding the reward.
"Our government needs to be more proactive in my son's case because Joseph was a Bahamian national," Burrows said. "He was there as a legal college student and under the protection of the Jamaican government. They need to step it up for their own citizens by demanding an explanation as to what happened to him and to at least satisfy themselves."
Burrows said he hopes the reward will bring forth some answers which may lead to apprehending those persons who murdered Joseph.
"All we are looking for is justice to be served because the Jamaican police need to be more vigorous in the case," Burrows said. "It's not to bash anyone, its just from what I have seen first hand. The authorities there have tried to discredit the case, saying that he may have been involved in something unsavory so they can justify themselves in not paying any attention to the case and that makes me sick to my stomach because Joseph was not that kind of a person."
Burrows said his son was truly an exemplary young man.
"I'm not saying that just because he was my son. A lot of people may have told their sons or daughters not to do this or that, but I can't say that about him because he was not that kind of a person," Burrows said. "My wife and I knew him. He was into the third year of his studies to become a medical doctor. His second choice of career was to be a pastor, because he was one child that was an avid church member."
Noting that things have not been the same since Joseph was killed, Burrows added, "Every morning when my wife and I wake up there is an anxiety. When you realize that your son is gone you have to condition yourself just to get out of bed. I would never wish that on nobody. Never. We are supposed to be buried by our children, not the other way around, and that was the most painful thing I ever had to do in my life."
Burrows said he is hopeful about the reward and hopes that someone would step forth about his son's case.
"It is a wonder to me that someone like him can be brutally murdered in such a way. What makes it worse is the fact that two years after his death, there has been no word of the investigation. If we only knew who had done that and why, then there would be some resolution for us," he said.
Burrows said he hopes that as a result of the reward, someone "will come forth with something about those persons because there could be many more innocent people being killed out there.
"It goes way beyond the death of my son," he said. "It's monumental in the fact that everybody is affected. Every one in his circle and that hurts so much."
The Freeport News attempted to contact Jamai-can authorities for comment, but were unable to get a response up to press time.
