A Jamaican priest has been murdered in his rectory. The Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands reported on Facebook the Rev. Larius Lewis (36), rector of St Paul’s Anglican Church in Chapelton, Clarendon Parish, was found dead on Friday morning. Fr. Lewis was last seen alive at a Wednesday evening meeting of the board of St Monica’s School for Girls.
The Rev. Winston Thomas, rector of St Gabriel’s Church in May Pen, told the Sunday Gleaner Fr. Lewis left the school board meeting at 5:30 to attend to an “emergency”. Fr. Thomas telephoned on Thursday but was unable to reach the young priest. Fr. Thomas contacted a member of the church staff to check on Fr. Lewis, and his body was discovered in the rectory on Friday morning.
Press reports state the body was unclothed and the dead priest had been bound hand and foot. Police are treating the death as a homocide.
The body was found a day after a soldier of the Jamica Defence Force was killed in a shoot-out with drug dealers in Milk River near the church during a joint police/army anti-drug sweep.
