cop called her phone, asking if she had heard from her daughter. Donaldson went missing on July 12, 2022. She was last seen in the company of Maitland, her boyfriend, who had picked her up in a black BMW motorcar on July 11 from the house in St Andrew where she lived with her mother and siblings. The much-anticipated trial got underway last Tuesday, with Lugg being the first witness to take the stand in the trial which is expected to last eight to 10 weeks.

“On the 13th [of July 2022] he said: ‘Mum, you hear from Donna-Lee?’ I said, ‘What sort of question is this, Noel? Donna-Lee left with you on Monday night. You would normally bring her back home. How dare you ask if I heard from her,’ Lugg said during the examination-in-chief as she was being quizzed by senior prosecutor Claudette Thompson. He said: ‘Mum, calm down. We had a little dispute — nothing big. She got upset and I was upset too, and she left.’ I asked him what he meant and if she had called a cab or if someone came and picked her up. He said he didn’t know because he was too upset. I said: ‘Noel, that apartment has cameras. Please check the cameras. I need to know what took Donna from the apartment.’ He said I was right and I should give him some time to call me back,” Lugg told the court.

The mother, who became emotional and teary-eyed as she gave her recollection of events in the court in downtown Kingston, said that she became worried after she was not able to get Donaldson on the phone. She explained that the last time she spoke to her daughter was about 8:00 am on July 12, 2022 when Donaldson called and asked her if she could feed her dog named China. Subsequent to that, all calls placed by Lugg to Donaldson’s phone went unanswered. (Jamaica Observer)