Cocoa Piece residents still grappling with trauma four years after Wright family murders

Four years after Kemisha Wright and her four children were killed in their Cocoa Piece home in Clarendon, neighbours say court judgments have not closed the wound. Residents report that daily life still carries the weight of one of Jamaica’s darkest family killings.

In June 2022, the 31-year-old practical nursing student and her children — aged 15, 11, five and one — were found murdered inside the house. Rushane Barnett, who had been staying there, was later convicted of the five murders and given multiple life sentences. Some in the district still feel that punishment falls short of what the crime demands.

From the hills where farmers work their fields, Cocoa Piece looks like many rural Clarendon communities. Routines that shaped the district for decades continue. Residents say the calm that once defined the area was broken that June day, and that the memories have never fully left those who remain.

One neighbour described the lasting grief in stark terms, saying the killings would follow them to the grave and that looking back still hurts deeply. Others say vehicles slow as people pass the property, point, and talk about the children who died there — commentary that continues to distress those who live nearby.

The house itself still stands, now in serious disrepair and occupied by wasps. A resident said people inquire about renting it, but the roof leaks and the structure is too run-down without major work. There has also been talk of converting the site into a place where visitors could reflect on what happened; neighbours say they are unsure what, if anything, will come of that idea.

While national attention has moved on, people in Cocoa Piece say the scars remain. They describe a determination to press ahead with ordinary life even as they carry a past the community cannot forget.