Female Minor Was Stabbed 52 Times

Jasmine Petillo

A gruesome discovery was made on Wednesday morning in Mahogany Heights. Seventeen-year-old Jasmine Petillo was brutally stabbed multiple times before her body was dumped in a ditch behind the community, off mile thirty on the George Price Highway. A postmortem exam conducted today on Petillo’s body confirmed that she had been stabbed an unimaginable fifty-two times. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

The bloodied sheet in which the body of seventeen-year-old Jasmine Petillo was wrapped before it was dumped in a ditch behind the Mahogany Heights community is the telltale sign that the minor suffered a brutal death.  It was a vicious attack that still has residents, as well as family and friends in shock.

Sherlette Gabourel, Aunt of Murder Victim [File: June 29th, 2016]

Sherlette Gabourel

“We know nothing of anybody di threaten her or anything. But I gone see my nice this morning and dehn stab up my niece mien…lotta stab. Who so cruel to do dehn kinda thing like that, mien?”

Duane Moody

“Do you think it was something personal?”

Sherlette Gabourel

“Like I say, we have no idea. We know nothing but we left everything to god. God noh di sleep; he sees and knows. But my niece get lot of stab, lot. We can’t even count the amount of stabs she get.”

Today, following an autopsy, police confirmed that Petillo was stabbed as many as fifty-two times to various parts of the body.

ACP Edward Broaster

ACP Edward Broaster, Regional Commander, Rural Eastern Division

“We have had significant developments in terms of that investigation. The postmortem was concluded today and the medical examiner revealed that she was stabbed some fifty-two times.”

Duane Moody

“We know that the young lady’s body was dumped in a ditch to the back of the community. All indications were that she wasn’t killed there. What is the investigation showing? Where was this young lady taken and killed, because if I am not mistaken, the mother is saying that she left home at three o’clock and her daughter was in her bed sleeping that same morning?”

ACP Edward Broaster

“Like I mentioned to you on the onset, we have some significant development. At this time we are not able to comment on those. Probably next week, early, we will update the media with the development of the investigation.”

Judith Petillo maintains that an enraged monster took the life of her granddaughter.

Judith Petillo, Grandmother of Murder Victim [File: June 29th, 2016]

Judith Petillo

“But whosoever do it, the good lord see and the watch and knows weh happen and dehn wah pay. I don’t know why deh do mi granddaughter. My granddaughter dah wah loving granddaughter fo mine. I mi always say that whenever I get sick or something happen to me, dah she wah mind we and take care of me. And dehn kill mi baby from me man. Why dehn do me that fah? Why? Why? Why? Why dehn o me that fah? Why?”

Police say that their investigation is linking this murder to that of another, which occurred exactly one year before the killing of Petillo. On June twenty-ninth 2015, the body of Desmond Usher, who is the brother of Leonard “Ghost” Meyers, was found in a bushy area in the outskirts of Mahogany Heights. Petillo had been detained for questioning in that homicide.

ACP Edward Broaster

“We know that her murder is in relation to the death of Desmond Meyers a year ago.”

Duane Moody

“How did police come to that sir?”

ACP Edward Broaster

“Through investigation that we had conducted.”

Duane Moody

“We understand that she was detained sometime aback in connection with that investigation. Is that so?”

ACP Edward Broaster

“Yes she was. I would not want to go into what really was the suspect as it relates to her participation in that particular incident. We suspect that that murder of Meyers was gang related, yes and as I said, it is in relation to Desmond Meyers.”

Police believe that they will soon detain the persons responsible for the murder of Petillo. Duane Moody for News Five.