Exclusive | Bog Walk mother recalls warning son hours before he is abducted, killed

May 27, 2021 0 By Horace Mills

A mother, Thelma Francis, who is struggling to come to grips with the abduction and murder of her son, seemingly had a premonition of his demise.

The decomposing body of her 51-year-old son, David Francis, was recovered yesterday morning from a remote area of Victoria district in Linstead, St. Catherine.

Francis went missing after nightfall on Friday, May 21.

The silver Toyota Probox taxi, which he operated between Guy’s Hill and Linstead towns, was found the day after he disappeared.

It was seen under a tarpaulin beside an abandoned house, which is located nextdoor to where Francis sometimes lived at Banbury district.

Thelma Francis, mother of the slain taximan, said her son made at least two big chances in recent times.

He started to operate the taxi three weeks before he was killed, and he also began staying at Banbury.

The mother explained that her son has a childhood friend, whose elderly parents live at Banbury. Her son, she added, was asked to drop in every now and then to check up on his friend’s parents, who have a helper.

The mother said she did not like the idea of her son ending up spending weekdays in Banbury, adding that she made her discomfort know to him.

“First thing, I never like him going to Banbury, because I learnt about the place how it run. Knowing that he was driving a taxi, I never feel confident for him to go over there,” she told The Beacon.

The mother added that, a day before her son went missing, he visited her at her home in Bog Walk, St. Catherine.

She said, when her son was about to leave her home, she warned him about being in Banbury, and informed him of her opinion that he was being watched by evildoers.

“On the Thursday evening (hours before my son went missing), I stood up and was looking at him, and I said ‘David, I am worried’. He said, ‘What mommy?’ I said, ‘I don’t like to know that you going over Banbury and being a taximan, because I know Banbury is not nice’.

“I said to him, ‘Listen, right now you stand up there, there is a darkness over you – gross darkness, and you are being watched’,” the mother further recalled.

She said her son told her that he was being vigilant, adding that he often changed the times when he travelled to the home where he was staying in Banbury.

“I said to him, ‘You can’t watch anybody; they watch you. While they are seeing you, you don’t see them’. That is what I told him for the last on Thursday evening, and he went away,” the mother further told The Beacon.

She said she was shocked when she heard that her son disappeared and could not be found for days.

“When I see how it was going, I spoke to God saying, ‘Let us even find the body that we can have it to put away, knowing the son that I have’. God answered my prayer,” the mother said. “We are disappointed by losing my son, but God knows more than what we know. I have to just leave it there in His hands…”

The mother further stated that her son was peaceful and trustworthy. “My son was a very humble person; he could be trusted; nothing harsh from him; he lived in harmony with the people around us,” she added.

Her son attended Rosemount Primary School in Linstead, and also Bog Walk High School that has been renamed Enid Bennett High.

After Francis left high school, he learnt leather craft in Spanish Town and used that skill to earn a living for many years.

Francis, at one point, also worked at a driving school in Kingston.

His mother stated that, because her son’s leather craft business was not longer flourishing, he resorted to operating a taxi.

“It is just three weeks before he was killed that he started operating the taxi. He doesn’t even have a taxi for himself,” she explained.

“The leather craft [business] is not performing like back then. He wanted to try something else, and so he started to drive for someone in Guy’s Hill. It is just three weeks since he started that – just a short time. Everybody surprise.”

The mother stated that her son lived with her and other relatives in Bog Walk for many years.

He relocated after getting married.

Francis and his wife separated years ago.

He, up to the time of his demise, had a girlfriend with whom he sometimes lived at Lucky Hill district in St. Mary. When Francis was not in Lucky Hill, he was at Banbury in Linstead.

He has two young children – a daughter and a son.

His mother stated that she, along with her family, has been receiving tremendous support especially from the community where she lives in Bog Walk.

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