Bodies in a freezer: The tragic story of two young friends

By Danielle Campbell

Five-year-old Jamal Codrington and eight-year-old Jabez Robinson enjoyed each other’s company. So when they went out to play and failed to turn up early in the evening, their parents were not worried.
It was February 21, 2003 and Jabez had gone over to Jamal’s Norton Street yard to ride his bicycle. According to Jabez’s father, Orden Robinson, he was out vending his wares and got home after six when he learnt his son was missing. “I wasn’t worried ‘cause I know Jabez knows his way around and doesn’t stray out of bounds. I was sure he would turn up,” Robinson said.
He settled down and nonchalantly began watching television, but later learnt the neighbour was looking for little Jamal too. Robinson became mildly worried and then around 21: 00h, heard screams coming from next door. He got up to investigate and learnt that Jamal and Jabez were found at the backyard.
Then with a distant look, Robinson related that the boys were discovered dead in a fridge. “I went numb. I saw my son lying in that fridge and from his position, my first thought was that he was killed and placed there,” Robinson said, brushing away a tear from his cheek.
Jamal, who lived in the yard where the bodies were found, was a student of the Stella Maris Nursery School, while Jabez, who lived some two houses away at 55 Norton Street, was a pupil of the St Sidwell’s Primary School.
Jamal’s body was found clad in a red, blue and white striped jersey and black trunks, while Jabez’s was clad in a pair of blue jeans and a black and white jersey.
Crime scene
Reminiscing about what he saw at the crime scene, Robinson said Jabez was lying on his stomach with his open palm supporting his face. The man added that Jamal’s arms were stretched to his side and the soles of their feet did not indicate children at play.
He noted with particular interest, an old rice bag lying in the yard and a strand from the bag resting on the shoulder of one of the dead boys. According to Robinson, there were two blood spots to the head and feet of his son and his lips were bleeding.

Robinson’s deduction was that whoever placed Jabez in the freezer had changed his position to fit into the freezing compartment. “His mouth had a bruise so when he was first placed with his head to the freezer, the door couldn’t lock so the person moved his foot to face the freezer and that explains the two blood spots,” Robinson conjectured.
He added that both boys were soaked from head to toe as if they had been swimming. As word got around, people in the area began to speculate that the boys had jokingly locked themselves in the fridge and could not climb out.
Doubt
However, that did not go down well with Robinson who was adamant that all evidence pointed to a double murder. “They were too much in a relaxed position. If you are locked up and suffocating, you would fight up. There was no sign of a struggle, nobody’s foot was on nobody, Jamal’s hands were to his side and Jabez was on his belly with marks on his back,” Robinson said.
A post-mortem report revealed that the marks on Jabez’s back were significant to the cause of death. According to a medical source, the fact that the children died from suffocation, does not rule out the possibility of a double murder.
Robinson explained further that the fridge had a latch which was braced to a concrete wall and could not reach the staple.
The man revealed that Jamal’s older brother had searched the fridge about 18: 00h and told investigators that he saw none of the boys there. The child said he had searched the fridge after noticing Jamal’s bicycle braced to it; however, he insisted that it was impossible to miss two dead bodies in a freezer. When the police came, they were heard commenting that whoever had found the children had also placed them in the fridge.
Detectives later told the family that the boys had gone in the fridge to play and unknowingly locked themselves in. “Anyone with a sense of reason would not get the impression that the boys died on their own,” Robinson said.
After reviewing photographs from the crime scene, the then A Division Commander Larry George instructed investigators to pursue the case as a murder. Police sources said crucial pieces of evidence at the crime scene were tampered with before investigators arrived.
Allegation
According to the source, someone close to the family might have had something to do with the murder. “The yard has one house and is fenced. These children were last seen around two and at six; they were not in the fridge. No one could have sneaked into the yard after six since everybody was looking for them. It had to be someone in the yard,” Robinson added.
Jamal’s mother, Sonia Codrington shares this view and believes that someone living in the yard might have placed the boys there.
Though she vaguely remembers details of what happened after she discovered the boys, the woman remarked that she also began pointing fingers.
Codrington said two days before the murder, a man who lived in the bottom flat, brought the refrigerator into the yard. She disputed though that the fridge was braced to a concrete wall and remembers removing the latch to open it when she discovered the boys.
Since the murder, Codrington finds it extremely difficult to even glance out into her backyard. Codrington said she sought counselling in England and had even moved to a Caribbean country in an effort to alleviate her suffering, but that did little to relieve the pain.
She said it has been hard all these years without Jamal, but she finds strength from God to cope with her son’s death each day. The lingering question of who would kill the two boys and dump their bodies in an old fridge is ever present.
Robinson still describes his son’s death as a catastrophe, adding that it stirs so much anger and hostility when he thinks of Jabez.
“The police did everything in their power to do nothing… I really don’t like to remember it,” Robinson said. Nine years later, many minds are still curious to unravel the lingering questions which remain about how little Jabez and Jamal met their demise. But until then, their strange, sudden and bizarre demise remains shrouded in mystery.