The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

A PINK rose bush was planted at Thelma Gibson Primary School yesterday in honour of six-year-old Gabrielle McKinney who died tragically last week.

The bodies of Gabrielle, her three-year-old sister Alisa McKinney and their mother 36-year-old Shemicka McKinney were pulled from the sea shortly after eyewitnesses said they saw a car – a dark blue Toyota Avalon – speeding off the Montagu ramp and into the water on March 22.

One eyewitness said the woman had driven to the edge of the ramp, stopped and turned around. She later returned and the car went into the water.

Donna Brown, principal of the Thelma Gibson Primary, said she was at home when she got the news that her “borrowed angel” had passed away.

Mrs Brown said she, along with teachers at the school, did not know how to break the news to Gabrielle’s friends and fellow students who were “too young to understand” the circumstances surrounding her death.

She said the school contacted pastors and therapists who explained “very practically” what happened.

Mrs Brown said a special memorial for Gabrielle was the least she could do for the “exceptionally bright” six-year-old girl who always had a smile on her face and always looked after others.

“The kids wanted to do something to remember their friend. So because pink was her favourite colour, the students released pink balloons and we planted a pink rose bush in our garden so Gabrielle will always be with us,” she said.

“The students were all teary eyed and some of them also cried because they did not really understand and they had a lot of questions. She was just one of those exceptional students, a very good reader. She was kind hearted and shared her lunch with students in her class who didn’t have any. Every morning she would come in the office and tell the senior mistress ‘I love you’. To be honest, we still look for the door to open and her little happy face to come tell us she loves us.

“She will most certainly be missed. Every student in her class was given a balloon to release today; they also brought teddy bears (that) they placed in the garden next to the rose bush.”

Police are still waiting for the autopsy results to determine exactly how the family died.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Stephen Dean has said police fear the incident was a murder-suicide but added that it is too early to speculate without the official results of an autopsy.

Family members described Ms McKinney as a depressed college graduate who was argumentative and out of work.

A relative told The Tribune she put Ms McKinney and her two children out of her small apartment the Friday before she died, after months of building tension.

Last week ACP Dean said the mother visited a police station days before her death, looking for a place to stay. He said the officers referred the mother to the Department of Social Services.