‘Call the cops’ - Final plea before NY tourist killed in Jamaica

The horrifying news came from the suspected killer’s mother.

On the other end of the line, the woman’s breathy, raspy voice told stunned relatives in New York that Melissa Kerry Samnath had been killed while on vacation in Jamaica.

As the family reeled in disbelief, a cryptic WhatsApp message Samnath sent shortly before 11 p.m. on the night she arrived in the island from Queens Village in New York two Tuesdays ago suddenly became chillingly clear. 

“I need you to call the cops. … Look at my location ... It is a pink house,” Samnath pleaded in the message, sent just over an hour before her 37th birthday. 

That was the last they heard from her.

The message – along with the gut-wrenching phone call from Jamaica – sent relatives spiralling into grief.

The hardest part of the last two weeks, according to her niece, Janice Wynter*, was identifying Samnath’s battered body before an autopsy last Wednesday confirmed she died from multiple blunt-force trauma injuries to the head.

“She didn’t deserve that,” Wynter said, describing her aunt as “one of the most loving persons ever”.

“My aunt was very helpful and family-oriented. When my grandfather died – her father – she was the one taking care of my other aunt and grandma,” said Wynter, disclosing that Samnath was the youngest of four siblings.

“It has been hard on us. We can’t understand why he did this to her. She wasn’t an evil person. She was the baby of our family. Now we have to bring her body back to bury,” she lamented.

Samnath, an accountant, is believed to have met her suspected killer online before travelling to Jamaica to celebrate her birthday.

Investigators later tracked her to the suspect’s home in Norwood, St James, where residents of the pink apartment complex recalled with horror the swarm of police officers who descended on the property searching for the suspect.

He was not there. 

Inside, detectives reportedly found pools of blood and some of Samnath’s belongings.

While it remains unclear whether she was gagged, residents said they heard no screams or signs of distress on the night of the murder.

Surveillance footage shows the suspect carrying her suitcases while she walked behind him from her Airbnb. It was unclear whether Samnath willingly left the property.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, noting the devastating implications crime can have on the country’s tourism product, declined to comment when contacted by The Sunday Gleaner, saying he first needed to be fully briefed.

Despite several police dragnets and widespread circulation of the case on social media, the suspect remains on the run.

The man reportedly relocated from Ocho Rios to Montego Bay, where he had reportedly been living for about two years before Samnath’s killing. An investigator said he is known to frequent St James, St Ann, and St Mary.

“There was a whole heap of blood in his house in Norwood. Him beat her badly, man. Beat her in her head,” one resident said, adding that Samnath was later pronounced dead at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.

“The police are looking for him, but they still haven’t received any breakthroughs."

Joshua Cummings, councillor for the Montego Bay Central Division in which Norwood is located, described the incident as shocking, given the usually quiet nature of the area.

“That area of Norwood is a very quiet, peaceful community with a very active citizens’ association. So this is quite shocking for everyone, especially since we have gone some two years without murders in the area,” he said.

“But we must understand that this particular incident has nothing to do with the community itself. This was done by an outsider,” he added.

Back in the United States, Samnath’s relatives replayed the haunting phone call repeatedly as they struggled to come to terms with their loss. 

“His mother called to tell us she got a phone call from him saying he killed her and dropped her off in a wheelchair at the hospital. He didn’t even have the audacity to take her into the hospital,” Wynter said angrily.

She said the mother, who they do not know, did not indicate how she was able to get their number to deliver the news.

“There is a murderer on the run, and he is clearly in an area with a lot of tourists. He is dangerous. Women need to be careful because you don’t know what he is capable of.”

*Name changed to protect identity.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com