It’s easy to judge a person who lives on the street, especially when most don’t really know or even care how they wound up there in the first place. It was just as easy to place Joanne Cox, also known as ‘Boogie,’ in the category of vagrant, or “jombie,” in Lucian terms. What many may not have known was that the 44-year-old was not exactly homeless. In fact, her family says up until her death she had her own room in her mother’s La Clery home but she would more often than not be seen roaming the streets of Castries.
“She liked the streets,” her older brother Austin Prospere told the STAR days after his sister was brutally murdered. “Anything I had I would give it to her. She went to La Clery whenever she wanted but she didn’t want to stay there. Maybe they were not agreeing with her habits. She was not crazy. Joanne was one of the smartest girls. I say St Lucia too small for her; she learnt a lot on the streets.”
According to police reports, Joanne was stabbed in an altercation on Saturday, August 13 near George the Fifth Park. She was later pronounced dead at Victoria Hospital.
The STAR spoke to the family who helped piece the story together. Prospere said Joanne had come to him two weeks ago informing him about a situation where she’d been raped and sodomized at knife-point.
“She came to warn me for him two weeks ago and I called the guy’s father and told him to tell his son leave the girl alone,” he said. “The way the father approached him, maybe the guys laughed at him. He playing role and interfering with them
kind of people. He got annoyed and maybe he was hunting her down. He killed her with a rage. Her boyfriend witnessed the whole situation. It happened in the back of the court, there’s a wall where people go to smoke.”
Joanne’s family proceeded to give the gruesome details of the post mortem.
“They found pieces of steel and the end of an ice pick inside her. He was hitting her head on a stone, all her face mash up,” her sister Vay Vay revealed.
“Regardless how she was she didn’t deserve to die like that. She was nice to everybody. She was troublesome. A lot ofpeople are going to miss her. She’s my younger sister, now I have just one sister. She had about 15 brothers. We’re all there holding on, I don’t know what to say. When I got there they’d already gone with the body but people were there talking about who they saw. It was a brutal
murder.”
Joanne’s family spoke of her better days, and said past boyfriends had a lot to do with the person she’d become. According to her brother, she’d dated someone who was into drugs who’d very likely gotten her to pick up the habit. Things went downhill from there. A boyfriend after that was a heavy smoker who’d physically abused her.
“He used to beat her up, break up all her hand. If you saw her face, she was looking like some old woman because he used to beat her,” her brother said. “Joanne went to primary school but didn’t continue school
after that.”
The 44-year-old leaves behind three children ages seven, seventeen and twenty-one.
“That’s three kids without a mom, who’s going to cater for them?” Joanne’s brother-in-law Tennyson questioned.
“Whatever she obtained from the streets she would carry home to gain respect from her kids. Now she’s gone but will not be forgotten. It’s a downfall for the family. Although she was what she was she was still appreciated by her family.”
Joanne’s death brings back memories of Anderson Dornelly, the 39-year-old mentally challenged man who was murdered in May. According to police reports Dornelly’s case is still in court. Even before that there was Davidson Sylvester, a homeless man who was doused with petrol
and set on fire.
One young man is currently in custody in connection with Joanne Cox’s death.
Comments are closed.