The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are questioning a male relative of a woman whose partially decomposed body was discovered in bushes off the Sherlin Bootle Highway in Abaco last week.

According to reports, sometime around 2pm last Thursday, police were called to the area where the discovery was made.

A senior police source confirmed the body was of 25-year-old Harderia Bootle, who was reported missing earlier in the week.

Bootle’s family raised concern after the mother of three didn’t return to collect her children from her mother’s house on Saturday, October 21.

The family tried to report the young mother missing a day later, but was told by police on the island that not enough time had elapsed for her to be classified as a missing person.

The family then mounted an unsuccessful search of the areas she was known to frequent.

As the family continues to grieve over her death, police in New Providence dismissed social media reports about the homicide as “fake news.” 

According to police, someone had falsely claimed on social media that relatives of the victim were focused on retaliation and were “taking matters into their own hands.”

Police also said social media rumours that Bootle’s husband was found shot to death at home were also erroneous. 

Police urged members of the public to desist from “spreading such malicious rumours,” which they said were causing “undue grief” to family members and the wider community.

Bootle’s death marked the 117th homicide this year, according to The Tribune’s records.

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call police at 919 or Crime Stoppers at 328-TIPS.