25 June 2023 , 22:33
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The devastated granddaughter of a couple found brutally murdered in Jamaica with their life savings stolen is still looking for answers.
Charlie and Gayle Anderson, 71 and 74, were severely beaten before being shot and dumped in their firebombed home in 2018, Manchester Evening News reports.
Just a year before they had sold their home in Gorton, Greater Manchester, as Mr Anderson had dreamed of returning to the island of his birth, and moved to an eight bedroom house in Jamaica.
Eight weeks before their deaths they found £100,000 had gone from their bank accounts so flew back to the UK to talk to the bank.
Satisfied they would get some money back, the couple returned to Jamaica where they soon met their grisly ends.
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The couple on their wedding day (PA)
The couple were found dead in their home (PA)Granddaughter Stacey, 35, told Manchester Evening News : “We still don't know what happened, so the grieving process hasn't happened properly for us.
“The house is still there, we haven't done anything with it. But I'm frightened to go over there, because the people who did are dangerous and they're still out there.
"That makes me really sad because I'm proud of my heritage and I want to go and experience it.
“My grandparents were were still young and active. They would have had more great grandchildren, they were robbed of all those opportunities in their lives. It's heart-wrenching.
"I still have all of the fight in me to get justice, but I don't have much faith in the system - I really don't. But we want to keep the story alive because we hope someone will speak up one day.
“It's still raw. It's incredibly traumatising to live with every day of our lives."
A builder by trade, Mr Anderson moved from Jamaica to the UK aged 17 as part of the Windrush generation and settled in Moss Side.
He met his future wife a few months later and the couple married in 1962.
An inquest into their deaths in September 2020 heard that Saquino Farr, who had been employed by Mrs and Anderson to do odd jobs around the house, had been arrested on suspicion of fraud in connection with the missing money.
His case is still going through the Jamaican court system, the family say. But no-one has ever been charged in connection with Mr and Mrs Anderson's deaths
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Stacey added: "In short nothing has happened since the inquest in September 2020.
“We have continued to meet with Jamaican police online, but there have been no arrests, no charges.
"At the last meeting they implied that while the case is still open it's no longer active. It's been really, really frustrating.
“We have had enough taken away from us. We want a bit of peace in getting a conviction. It would mean so much because justice has to be served."
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesperson said: "We continue to provide consular assistance to the family of a British man and woman who were killed in Jamaica in 2018."