The aunt of a New York model who was found dead on the side of a road with her throat slashed in Jamaica two months ago received two phone calls on Sunday from her niece’s phone, it was reported on Wednesday.
Peggy Brunner said that she was preparing dinner on Sunday night when her phone rang.
The display screen read the name ‘Desi,’ which is short for Desiree Gibbon.
When Brunner answered the call, there was silence on the other end of the line, according to the New York Daily News.
Six hours later, Brunner received another call from the same number, but she wasn’t able to answer on time.
The aunt of a New York model, Desiree Gibbon (above), who was found dead on the side of a road with her throat slashed in Jamaica two months ago, received two phone calls on Sunday from her niece’s phone, it was reported on Wednesday
Peggy Brunner (above) said that she was preparing dinner on Sunday night when her phone rang. The display screen read the name ‘Desi,’ which is short for Desiree Gibbon, but there was silence on the other end
Andrea Cali-Gibbon, Desiree Gibbon’s mother, said that the family has grown frustrated by the authorities’ inability to solve her daughter’s murder
When she called back, she heard a message saying that the phone was not working.
Gibbon, 26, from Queens, was found by locals bloodied and lifeless a few miles from Montego Bay on the Caribbean island’s north coast on November 26, LoopJamaica.com reports.
Her phone has never been recovered.
Mystery currently surrounds what appeared to be a heinous homicide – while investigators are conducting an autopsy report.
‘I got goosebumps from my head to my toes,’ Brunner told the Daily News of her reaction when she saw her late niece’s name on her phone display.
Gibbon, 26, from Queens, was found by locals bloodied and lifeless a few miles from Montego Bay on the Caribbean island’s north coast on November 26
The gorgeous Gibbon arrived to the country back in October with a three month visa. Her body was spotted by horrified residents in the bushes
The gorgeous Gibbon arrived to the country back in October with a three month visa.
Her body was spotted by horrified residents in the bushes.
Police identified Gibbon after showing her photograph to hotel officials in the area where they thought she may have been staying, according to the New York Daily News.
Grief-stricken family members to Gibbon were at a total loss for words about what may have happened.
‘It has to have been a complete stranger. Desiree had a heart of gold, everybody loved her. Everything hurts. It’s hard to breathe,’ aunt Brunner told the Daily News.
‘She loved to travel. She went to Brazil and worked in camps teaching English. And she taught herself Portuguese.’
So far, Jamaican authorities have been unable to solve the case, which has caused distress for the grieving family.
‘There are no answers,’ Gibbon’s mother, Andrea Cali-Gibbon, said.
‘You feel like they’re not doing anything at all.’
Desiree Gibbon was least seen alive three nights before she was murdered.
She was seen on surveillance video walking out of her hotel on Thanksgiving night.
Grief-stricken family members to Gibbon were at a total loss for words about what may have happened
Gibbon is filmed wearing a T-shirt, shorts, sandals and a bandanna while walking toward the lobby at 11:22pm.
She is then seen going back to her room, only to come out again five minutes later.
Gibbon is then seen walking out the front door and turning left.
‘She walked out of the driveway, made a left out the gate, and that was the end of her,’ Andrea Cali-Gibbon said.
The hotel is owned by her grandmother. Desiree Gibbon’s father, Gairy Gibbon, is a native of Jamaica.
His daughter stayed at the hotel while she looked for work as a bartender in hopes of saving money to go to film school in Europe.
Desiree Gibbon left the hotel carrying just her American cell phone. She left her local phone and her wallet behind in her room.
Cali-Gibbon said that the family informed police that there was hotel surveillance footage.
Desiree Gibbon (seen above with an unidentified person) was least seen alive three nights before she was murdered. She was seen on surveillance video walking out of her hotel on Thanksgiving night
She said that initially police did not take much of an interest in the video.
‘They didn’t think it was going to help solve the crime,’ Cali-Gibbon said.
‘They’re only focused on the phone.’
While authorities have yet to make a breakthrough in the investigation, Cali-Gibbon believes that her killer was an acquaintance.
‘It was calculated,’ Cali-Gibbon said.
‘She wasn’t robbed. She wasn’t taken for ransom…I think she learned something, I don’t know what, and I think they shut her up.’
Parents and relatives created a GoFundMe page to aid in transportation of her body back to the United States as well as funeral costs.
‘My heart is truly broken!!! I asking you all to please help me and my sister at this very difficult and heartbreaking time,’ her sister wrote to the page.
‘My niece was murdered in Jamaica very brutally and we need to get her home as soon as possible!!!! Please help!!!! Thank-you all!!!!,’ her aunt added.