MANDEVILLE, Jamaica — A profound call for transparency pierced the solemn atmosphere at the funeral of Victoria Brown Hanley, a 20-year-old University of the West Indies student whose unexplained death has ignited public demands for justice. Reverend Khereen Wilson-Bailey’s emotionally charged sermon at Andrews Memorial Church condemned potential cover-ups and invoked divine intervention to reveal the truth surrounding the tragedy.
The circumstances of Brown Hanley’s death remain shrouded in uncertainty. On October 16, the final-year student was discovered lifeless in her fourth-floor dormitory at George Alleyne Hall on the UWI campus. According to initial reports, her roommate returned after 6:00 am to find Brown Hanley face-down with a scarf tightly wound around her neck. Despite immediate efforts by campus security and responding officers from the Mona Police Post, the young Manchester native was pronounced dead at the scene.
Official autopsy results confirmed death by strangulation, yet law enforcement authorities have maintained remarkable silence regarding investigative progress. Assistant Commissioner Michael Phipps of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Area Four had initially indicated that CCTV footage review and witness interviews were underway, but police have since declined to identify any persons of interest in the case.
The emotional funeral service revealed disturbing parallels as Reverend Wilson-Bailey disclosed this marked the second 20-year-old she had buried in her ministry. Another young woman had previously been found dead with blunt force trauma to the head in Berry Hill, Manchester, creating a pattern that underscores the vulnerability of Jamaica’s youth.
Brown Hanley was universally remembered as a jovial yet reserved individual with exceptional promise. Tributes from deCarteret College Principal Dr. Prim Lewis described her as “quiet, reserved, polite, hard-working, ambitious, not vulgar at all,” while May Day High Principal Stanford Davis recalled her precocious nature since childhood. Her grieving parents, Pauline and Vernon Hanley, sat beside their daughter’s blue coffin as family and community members shared memories of her empathetic nature and rare emotional intelligence.
The collective anguish expressed throughout the service transcended personal grief, evolving into a powerful societal demand for accountability and protection for Jamaica’s young population. Religious and educational leaders united in their call for justice, emphasizing that those who prey on the vulnerable would not escape divine or legal consequences.