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Racehorse owner killed

norman grindley photos - The bedroom where Sonia Carnegie was murdered.

SONIA CARNEGIE'S FAMILY or friends do not know who killed her, but they all believe that it was someone she knew.

Carnegie, a 53-year-old race horse owner was found dead yesterday in her bedroom in her Independence City home in Portmore. Her throat was slashed and her room ransacked.

Texton Chin, one of the men who found Mrs. Carnegie, said he went to the house in the morning to collect a bicycle and saw the gardener cleaning up the yard.

Shortly after that, her husband, who sleeps in a separate room from his wife came home but he said he had not seen his wife from the night before.

"He go up to the room and come back and said the room pull up, pull up and that is not like Mrs. Carnegie," Chin told THE STAR.

He said the husband went to the window to look and saw a foot sticking out at the side of the bed. He then tried to use a machete to pry the door open, however when that did not work, he used a knife to open the door.

When they went inside, they found Carnegie lying beside her bed, the carpet stained with blood. "Mi run go over dere and start to shake har, but mi nuh get no heartbeat or nutten; she did dead already,' Chin said.

Rudolph Crooks, Carnegie's nephew said her head was also bashed in. "Mi know seh she dead fighting," he said.

Quite careful

The residents say Carnegie returned from the United States five years ago and was quite careful about who she allowed in her bedroom. "She is the only person who has a key to her door, suh the person must know her because she let them in because she don't open the door unless you ring the buzzer," Crooks said.

Some residents and family members theorise that robbery may have been the motive for the murder as Carnegie was quite kind to the residents in her community. "She is very nice, you can't be mongst har and you hungry and she nuh give yuh something fi eat; all if you nuh want it she a give yuh same way," one resident said.