Elderly couple robbed and murdered in their Jamaica vacation home

Melbourne Flake, 81, and Etta Flake, 70, were found dead after a home invasion

Jan 11, 2018

An elderly Canadian couple was killed in their Jamaican vacation home, according to their daughter.

Melbourne Flake, 81, and Etta Flake, 70, were discovered dead in their vacation home on Tuesday morning in St. Thomas.

“It was just terrible, that’s all I know,” said daughter Debbie Olfert.

Olfert said that she found out about her parents’ deaths on Tuesday night when her sister called and told her to get home first before she told her the bad news.

“I thought that I was in a dream. I thought that this couldn’t possibly be what I was hearing, that it was a bad, bad joke. That I would be saying, ‘OK, you know what? That’s not funny,'” Olfert recalled, according to CBC News. “But I realized at some point when I had several people starting to call me, and I had another person from Jamaica call me and say, ‘I’m sorry Debbie,’ I thought, ‘Oh, OK, this is not a fantasy. This is real.'”

Police are still investigating

Interpol is reportedly investigating the case, though Olfert said that the family had very little information beyond that.

Dahlia Garrick, a communications officer for the Jamaica Constabulary Force, said that they were investigating and that it was possible the elderly couple had found themselves the victim of a robbery. However, Garrick said that they had not ruled anything out yet.

“I can assure you that we from the Jamaica Constabulary Force are committed to a speedy investigation and to ensure that the perpetrators are caught, are brought to justice and that the persons in the community and the family might have some closure as to what happened,” Garrick said.

A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada has since released a statement saying, “We offer our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the Canadian citizens who have been [killed] in Jamaica. Consular services are being provided to the victims’ family.”