Chateaubelair woman brutally hacked to death

Adrian Codogan

Residents of Cocoa Village, Chateaubelair, are expressing dismay, shock and outrage, following a murder suicide which took the lives of two of their own on Sunday.

Dead is 35-year-old Shardine Monisia{{more}} Johnson, who was brutally hacked to death by her former boyfriend, 39-year-old Keno Franklyn, who later took his own life.

Family members told SEARCHLIGHT that Shardine had broken off the relationship with Franklyn about a month ago and had moved out of the rented home she shared with him at Plan Village, back to her family home at Cocoa Village.

Viviette Johnson, Shardine’s mother, told SEARCHLIGHT that she last saw her daughter just before she went to Franklyn’s home, where she was attacked.

Viviette said that her daughter had planned to attend church that morning, so she got up early and was making preparations to cook, when the phone rang.

She said her daughter answered, then hung up, following which, the phone rang again.

Viviette said when she asked who called, Shardine replied, “Yo nah dun know?” and went into the bedroom.

The distraught mother said when Shardine returned to the kitchen, she put the pie and chicken into the oven to bake, then at about 7:15 a.m., she said, “Mommy me ah come back, yo hear” and left the house.

Viviette said that daughter had changed her cellular phone number only the Friday before, as she was being harassed by phone calls from Franklyn.

According to Viviette, about half an hour later, someone called and told her that Franklyn had beaten up Shardine and that she was unconscious.

“It was like everything just froze,” said Viviette, who had to be hospitalized after she got the news.

Donna Bowens, a friend of Shardine’s, said that while Shardine was on her way to Plan Village, she stopped at her gate and told her that Keno had called and told her to come for her furniture, as a truck from Fitz-Hughes was on the way to move the items for her.

Bowens said that she asked Shardine if she was sure that she was not going to get into an argument with Franklyn, but Shardine just smiled and said “Black, you know me.”

“I never know that I will never see Monisia alive again,” Bowens said.

Roxanne James told SEARCHLIGHT that she was sitting with a friend on a bench close to the road when Shardine passed at about 7:30 a.m. on her way to the house at Plan Village.

She said a few minutes later, they heard screams and then saw smoke coming from the house where Keno lived.

James said she ran to the house and encountered Johnson on the porch with a large chop wound going from the side of the neck round to the back.

She was covered in blood.

“I had to run back; I was really frightened seeing so much blood,” James said.

James said she called for help and for someone to bring a cloth to cover the wounds. A nearby car took Shardine to the Chateaubelair Health Centre, where she died at approximately 9:10 a.m., a police report said.

James said that Johnson told them that Keno had chopped her, set the mattress afire, locked the doors, then left the house.

The one-storey wall structure, owned by Joseph Browne of Chateaubelair, burned for half an hour, before residents risked their lives to put out the blaze, which was mostly concentrated in the ceiling.

Upon entering the house, Franklyn was not found, so residents began searching the bushes above the house, where a jug containing gramoxone was found.

A wider search of the area initially proved futile. However, Franklyn was later found under some bushes at an abandoned property, close to the Chateaubelair Methodist School by a woman who was tending her sheep.

Franklyn was taken into custody, then taken to the Chateaubelair hospital, following which he was transferred to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital in Kingstown, where he died at 9:40 p.m., according to a police report.

Shardine’s brother Kevin told SEARCHLIGHT that he last saw his elder sister Saturday morning after he sent her home in a taxi, after the Miss Leeward Pageant, which took place at the Petit Bordel Hard Court.

Kevin said that early last Friday, Shardine had told him that she wanted to go to the show.

He said he was surprised to hear that, as she had said previously that she did not want to go anywhere.

He said he, however, fixed his vehicle just to take her.

When they got to the venue, he said Shardine didn’t go into the show, so he and another friend remained with her outside, until the show ended.

The grieving brother said while at the event, he went inside for a while, then came out and saw Franklyn standing close to his sister.

“I went in a dark area and began observing the scene, but he didn’t do anything,” Kevin stated.

Another sister, Cecily, told SEARCHLIGHT that she and her sister were supposed to meet on Thursday to do some business for their brother in Canada, but she was unable to make it, so Shardine went on her own on Friday and conducted the business.

“I will miss my sister, but reality has not set in yet,” said Cecily, a police officer who was on duty at Ratho Mill when she got the news that her sister had been killed.

Shardine, a graduate of the Petit Bordel Secondary School, worked as a store clerk. She had one child, a 14-year-old girl by a previous relationship, who lives in England.

Police say post mortem examinations will be performed on the bodies.