The family of 37-year-old Melissa Kerry Samnath is grieving and demanding justice after the New York accountant was killed while vacationing in Jamaica to celebrate her birthday.<\/p>\n
Just hours after arriving on the island, Samnath sent a desperate WhatsApp message to relatives in Queens Village, New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need you to call the cops. Look at my location. It is a pink house,\u201d she wrote shortly before 11 p.m.<\/p>\n
The message, sent just over an hour before her 37th birthday, was the last communication her family received from her.<\/p>\n
Soon after, relatives said they received a devastating phone call from a woman in Jamaica informing them that Samnath had been killed.<\/p>\n
An autopsy later confirmed that she died from multiple blunt-force trauma injuries to the head.<\/p>\n
Family Remembers a Loving Relative<\/p>\n
Samnath\u2019s niece, Janice Wynter, described her aunt as a caring and devoted family member.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe didn\u2019t deserve that,\u201d Wynter said. \u201cMy aunt was one of the most loving persons ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Samnath, the youngest of four siblings, was always the one who stepped in to care for family members during difficult times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t understand why he did this to her,\u201d Wynter said. \u201cShe was the baby of our family, and now we have to bring her body home to bury.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators Trace Her to Suspect\u2019s Home<\/p>\n
Police believe Samnath met the suspect online before traveling to Jamaica.<\/p>\n
Investigators later traced her to the man\u2019s residence in Norwood, St. James, where detectives reportedly found bloodstains and some of her personal belongings.<\/p>\n
Residents of the pink apartment complex said they were shocked when police descended on the property, but the suspect had already fled.<\/p>\n
Surveillance footage reportedly shows the man carrying Samnath\u2019s luggage while she walked behind him after leaving her Airbnb accommodations.<\/p>\n
She was later taken to\u00a0Cornwall Regional Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n
Suspect Remains at Large<\/p>\n
The suspect, who reportedly moved from Ocho Rios to Montego Bay about two years ago, is believed to frequent St. James, St. Ann, and St. Mary.<\/p>\n
Despite multiple police operations and widespread social media attention, he has not yet been apprehended.<\/p>\n
According to Wynter, the suspect\u2019s mother called the family and said her son admitted to killing Samnath and leaving her in a wheelchair outside the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t even have the audacity to take her into the hospital,\u201d Wynter said.<\/p>\n
Community and Family Call for Justice<\/p>\n
Joshua Cummings, councillor for the Montego Bay Central Division, said the incident has shocked residents of Norwood, which had gone nearly two years without a murder.<\/p>\n
Samnath\u2019s relatives are now warning women to exercise caution when meeting people they have connected with online.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a murderer on the run, and he is in an area with a lot of tourists,\u201d Wynter said. \u201cWomen need to be careful because you don\u2019t know what he is capable of.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Jamaican police continue their search, Samnath\u2019s family remains focused on bringing her body home and seeking justice for a woman they say was kind, loving, and taken far too soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of 37-year-old Melissa Kerry Samnath is grieving and demanding justice after the New York accountant was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-227432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}