Missing youth killed, another escapes death

Charges are expected to be laid soon against 28-year-old Layou resident McCarthy “DJ” Patterson, who was arrested last week in connection with the disappearance and possible killing of 12-year-old secondary school student Dwayne Stephon Miller.

Miller’s decomposed body was found by police on Friday morning, with the assistance of Patterson, in an area of the Layou mountains known as “Hunt Hole”, five weeks after the boy went missing from his London Road, Layou home.

A group of curious Layou residents, along with passersby travelling the Leeward Highway, gathered at Happy Hill, on the outskirts of the town, where police had earlier on the morning of Friday, November 4, trekked with Patterson and other members of the community, to recover the body of Miller, who was a first former at the Central Leeward Secondary School.

By the time Miller’s body was recovered and brought to the main road just after 11:00 a.m., the group had transformed into a mob of angry citizens calling for justice for the slain boy, and jostling with police to get a hold of his alleged killer.

The previous day, Thursday, November 3, Patterson was arrested by police and questioned on the matter, following an incident that day, when he allegedly attempted to take the life of Joemoro Phillips, not too far from where Miller’s body was found.

Phillips alleged Patterson lured him into the hills under the guise of cutting posts for another Layou resident, and when they got to a certain point, proceeded to choke him from behind.

Phillips managed to escape his attacker’s grasp and ran to the road, where sought help from some passing cyclists, following which he reported the incident to the Rapid Response Unit (RRU) outpost in Layou, before being taken to the Layou Police Station.

When the 19-year-old labourer arrived at the station, Patterson was already there making a report of his own to police, claiming that he had been attacked by two masked men.

Further interrogation of Patterson, who was recently released from Her Majesty’s Prisons, led to him admitting knowledge of Miller’s whereabouts and leading investigators to the area where Miller’s bones were found.

Miller was the son of Stephanie Miller and Theodore Jack, and was the sixth of eight children born to Stephanie.

In 1996, Patterson was the victim of abuse at the hands of police in Layou. On Friday, members of the Special Services Unit, RRU and other units were there in numbers protecting him from some of the people who had turned out on his behalf fifteen years ago.