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A key, a trinket he recognised, and the crushing possibility that the search for his missing daughter may have ended in tragedy are weighing heavily on the mind of Everton Dilworth.

This week, he sat with investigators who presented personal items found near human skeletal remains in Hellshire, St Catherine, items they say may belong to his daughter Anisa, a first-year UTech student. Though identification is pending DNA results, the emotional weight of the moment has already begun to settle in.

"I did not get the impression that they were calling me to identify some of the personal items of my daughter," Dilworth said, his voice low. "It was still so early in the investigation."

According to police, the remains, discovered on May 17 in bushes near Fort Clarence Beach, were found by a Guardsman security guard on routine patrol. A skull, ribcage, femur, and sections of decomposed skin were reportedly found. Nearby, investigators found grey sweatpants marked 'Peanuts,' a black bra, black female underwear, $250 in cash, two keys, and a Hello Kitty key ring. One of those keys, officers later confirmed, opened the gate where Anisa lives on Gordon Town Road, St Andrew. The other opened her rented room. However, police have insisted that no official identification has yet been made. Still, some details struck Dilworth as unmistakably familiar.

"I know I've handled Anisa's keys before," he told THE STAR. "And I was told Hello Kitty was also part of the key ring. Those little signs... it is a possibility it might be her." But the weight of possibility has only brought deeper unease.

"Oh God, it's like a vortex," he said. "The dimension is changing. Everything is changing. On one hand, I'm trying to keep her memory alive, and on the other hand, it is not possible... and then you're wondering if someone can be this cruel." He paused, then added quietly, "I'm just going through the motion."

He also raised concerns about the condition of the body, saying it appeared too unnatural for him to ignore.

"I'm not a medical professional, and this is not an official report, but it seems to me it has been tampered with," he said. "If that is so, we are in trouble as a country. The level of sophistication where these guys went to conceal or cover up a murder, we are in some serious trouble."

"I'm not ruling out anything," he said. "They must have some agents on the ground looking for people who are vulnerable or unfamiliar with Kingston and the environment." Anisa is from St James. Dilworth said that the incident reminds him "of the young lady from UWI", referring to Jasmine Deen.

"All now, they can't find her."

Yet even in the midst of his grief, he acknowledged the wave of national solidarity that's followed Anisa's disappearance.

"For all the protests and support our family has been getting from the Jamaican society, I am grateful," he said. "It shows we can't leave everything to the government; we have to involve ourselves."

His reflections turned inward once more, to the private pain of a father who suspects his daughter may have died in terror.

"I've thought about her fighting for her life, calling for me," he said. "Because anything happens from she was a baby, the first person she call is 'Daddy.'"

That pain is deeply familiar to Lloyd Deen, Jasmine's father. The visually impaired UWI student has been missing since 2020.

"A di same thing a happen over and over again," Deen told THE STAR. "The system nah do nothing bout it."

"Me feel a di same set a people a do it," he said bluntly. "Dem just feel like dem can do weh dem wah do and get weh wid it." His voice then softened for a moment.

"Mi heart go out to her father because it nuh easy. Him ago live wid 'what ifs' for the rest him life," said Deen. He knows the ache all too well.

"Every day mi think 'bout it fi the past five years now," he said. "Mi still don't have closure."