Woman’s Badly Decomposed Body Pulled From House
Bianca Symonette
The Bahama Journal



The badly decomposed body of a woman discovered in her home on Miami Street on Tuesday has heightened the importance of persons remaining in constant contact with family and friends, according to police.

Police believe Cynthia Taylor, 47, was dead for several days before a neighbor indicated to the police that there was a strong stench coming from the apartment along with swarms of flies.

The Pope had remained steadfastly against contraception and many critics had called him out of touch given the devastating impact HIV/AIDS has had.

With the election of a new Pope set to signal a new era in Catholicism, some local Catholics are standing firm in their belief that the beliefs of the Church should remain unchanged.

“There are certain tenets or doctrines in the Catholic Church that cannot and will not change ever and the faith – as far as the Church is concerned – should be grounded in those precepts of the Gospel and should not be changed willy-nilly just to suit the particular outlook of any faction in the Church,” longtime Catholic Vince Ferguson told the Bahama Journal.

“The Church will not change its views on things like homosexuality, divorce, and contraceptives simply because it believes that the Gospel and Jesus Christ stand for human values and certain spiritual values and it is not for man to change them and make God in man’s image, but to keep the ideal before man so that he can continue his evolution towards perfection in building God’s kingdom here on earth.”

But what about the issue of women serving as priests in the Catholic Church, an approach that was adopted by the Anglican Diocese in recent years?

“The Catholic Church is not the Anglican Church, Baptist or Presbyterian. The Church is Unitarian and it has been that way for 2,000 years,” Mr. Ferguson said

But Mr. Ferguson is not the only one who feels the future of the Catholic Church should continue in the direction it was headed under the spiritual guidance of Pope John Paul II.

Alpheus Ramsey, executive coordinator at The Bahamas National Pride Association and a member of St. Bede’s Catholic Church, agrees with is assessment.

“Spirituality ought not to be used as a measurement or fashion. It is there and it should stay there,” Mr. Ramsey said.

But he stressed that this is not to say that the Church’s spirituality should not be reviewed, as has been the case over the last several years.

But Mr. Ramsey said possible changes in the Church’s teachings should not detract from the Bible.

Many Bahamian women shared the Pope’s unflinching stand on many issues affecting females and expect the new Pope to hold the same views.

“Every new invention brings new possibilities and those possibilities have to be guided and directed by sound principles. Human beings don’t change that much. Our nature is always the same. We need certain things. We need spiritual guidance and when we begin to flip flop according to how we feel, that’s when the problems arise,” Telzena Coakley told The Bahama Journal after signing a condolence book at St. Francis Xavier Catheral.

“The Church sets the direction for moral behavior and we should follow that. Our spiritual development depends on that. For instance, our belief on contraceptives stem from the fact that the sexual act should only be within marriage and its main purpose is for the procreation of a human being.

“So when you are going to bastardize the act, then we bastardize all the results a lot of the problems stem from. As it concerns celibacy, Jesus Christ was celibate and we know from his teachings that anybody who can remain celibate honestly should do so. It is a better offering of your entire self to the Lord.”

Ms. Coakley was just one of several Bahamians – Catholics and non-Catholics – who filed into the Cathedral on Tuesday to sign their names and well wishes in the book.

On his way to midday mass at the time, Earl Thompson added that the Catholic Church must remain steadfast in its teachings.

“People who look for a good time in religion – jumping from church to church – real Catholics don’t do that. Catholicism is one of the strictest religions on earth – if we follow it. But a lot of people look for leeway in Catholicism and the Pope said this is the way it is and that’s how it should go,” he said.

“When the Church begins to bend to satisfy a few people, it would never stop bending. To allow priests to get married calls for a lot of discipline in the family. And so this is not the answer. I think a man who enters the priesthood does so to be married to his flock. Our way of doing it is straight down the line.”

But there are those within the local Catholic community who feel that there is room for change.

“I don’t agree with women becoming priests and I don’t believe in abortion nor divorce – why get married?” said a member of the St. Francis Xavier Cathedral congregation, who gave her name only as Jackee.

“But if some of the priests wish to get married, it should be up to them.”

International media reports speculate that the next pope is likely to follow John Paul II’s conservative bent closely.

got the pope and the dead woman mixed into one .. waz up??



They had one paragraph on the woman and then they some how ended up on the pope. Someone was writing this late in the night or they had some rum in their system. I think the woman at least deserved an entire article. The pope aint no deader than her.

Well a point for the Guardian, now that is a well focused article.

got the pope and the dead woman mixed into one .. waz up??

i thought i was seeing things myself, my sentiments exactly

By TAMARA McKENZIE,Guardian Staff Reporter tamara@nasguard.com

The decomposed body of a female was discovered early Tuesday morning in a one-room shack on North Miami Street. The deceased has been identified as 47-year-old Cynthia Taylor.

According to Inspector Walter Evans, police received information around 9:00 a.m. that the body of a female was found lying behind a Miami Street apartment complex. He said upon further investigations, the police discovered the partially decomposed body of a female lying face up on the floor. It was clothed in a blue and white floral pajama top and there were no signs of trauma to the body. As of Tuesday, foul play was not suspected.

"We know that rigormortis had set in and there was swelling in the body and other deteriorating factors began to set in on the corpse," Inspector Evans said. He added that the body was discovered by someone in the area who noticed an abundance of flies hovering around the one-room structure, from which a strong stench emanated.

When The Guardian's news team arrived on the scene, officers from the Grove police station and the police Forensic Unit as well as curious on-lookers had already gathered in an area opposite a white dilapidated house. The doors and windows of the home were partly covered with barbed wire; however, the press was told the body of the deceased was inside a room attached to the rear of the home.

Around 11:10 a.m., the coroner arrived along with a Restview Memorial hearse and took away the body. At that time, a woman later identified as a sister of the deceased sobbed loudly and ran away from the immediate area.

Following the removal of the body, the press was issued face masks, and was allowed to view the house of the deceased. At the rear of the dwelling, several old, wet mattresses were strewn alongside its walls. The one-room structure seemed to have been abandoned. There was no electricity, for instance. However, sunlight streamed from holes in its tin roof.

Navigating among old appliances and other items on the floor, and two bed sheets hanging from an indoor clothes line, the press came upon the area where the body had apparently been found. Flies swarmed the blood-stained carpet.

On the floor, inches away from the door, lay a bottle of alcohol, a bottle of Aquapure water and a half burned candle. A single bed rest upon four cement blocks and a light blue curtain parted the room, apparently to create a bathroom.

According to the victim's sister, Yvonne Clarke, her younger sister had lived alone, but had had five children - four boys and one girl. She recalled that she saw her sister last on Good Friday when she took her to receive treatment at the hospital. At that time she said, her sister was diagnosed as HIV positive, but she received treatment and was released on Holy Saturday. Reiterating that although she had not seen the deceased since the day of the hospital visit, she indicated that a nephew delivered food to her since that time.

Ms Clarke added that the deceased also suffered from seizures.

She also indicated her family's concern for the deceased.

"We were just coming around here this afternoon to see if we could get her moved to the front part of the building. She was once living two blocks away from here [Miami Street] with a friend and this was a better environment, but I don't know what caused her to move."

Further, Ms Clarke described her sister as quiet. "You would only hear her if somebody bothered with her, but she was never a person to get upset ... Cynthia's problem was that she never really kept in touch with the sisters like she was suppose to.

"If we wanted to see her, we had to come and look for her, because she always wanted to be by herself," she said, adding that her sister was also a recovering drug addict.

Inspector Evans said an autopsy will be carried out to determine the exact cause of death.



© 2005 The Nassau Guardian


this is so sad she had to die alone.