Police on Wednesday charged a former patient at a mental health institution with the murders of four schoolboys he allegedly picked at random from the streets of this tourist town.
But before he started the spree of kidnappings that mystified the Bahamas for six months, Cordell Farrington killed a friend whose remains were discovered Sunday along with those of the four boys, police alleged Wednesday. A fifth boy remains missing.
Farrington, 35, and Jamaal Robins, 22, met when both received treatment at a Nassau mental health institution in 2001, Robins family members said. The relatives — who claimed that Farrington had encouraged Robins to resume using crack cocaine — said they had long suspected that he had something to do with Robins' disappearance last December.
Family members said they tracked Farrington down in August. Farrington sat in the living room, nervous and sweating, and offered to help search for Robins, they said.
"That boy came, and he sit right here, in this chair, and tell me he can help find Jamaal for me," said Patricia Scott, Robins' mother. When he left, Farrington even took "Missing Persons" fliers with Robins' photograph on them.
Farrington, who also worked at a hardware store, told former co-workers that he used one of his days off to join the search crews combing the island for the five boys who disappeared beginning in May, the co-workers said.
DOUBLE LIFE?
The story was apparently part of a double life. Farrington, the father of a baby daughter born in September, is a former security guard, a man his last boss described as a model employee. He also has a history of mental illness and has been charged with killing five people.
Despite the hundreds of volunteers who searched the 100-mile-long island of Grand Bahama for months, the case came to a head Sunday when Farrington — whose sister is a police officer here — walked into police headquarters and turned himself in.
He then led police to the remains on Barbary Beach, a remote strip of sand surrounded by pine trees where locals have weekend barbecues. Farrington has no prior criminal record, said police Superintendent Hulan Hanna.
On Wednesday, hundreds of people gathered behind barricades at the Freeport courthouse and chanted, "Show his face! Show his face!" When police paraded him in front of the crowd, Farrington smiled.
Farringon moved from Nassau to Freeport a little more than a year ago. In that time, he held at least four jobs, and many in this tight-knit community of 30,000 recognized his face Wednesday.
Farrington tried to cobble together a living selling handicrafts, like flower vases made from conch shells, and at one point worked as a security guard at a Five and Dime store next to the Winn-Dixie supermarket where all but one of the missing boys packed groceries for tips.
He left his security job suddenly in May, three days after the second boy vanished, said his former boss, Morris Simmons. He did the same at a hardware store in downtown Freeport.
Since July, Farrington had worked at a building supplies warehouse at another hardware store. Managers there said he was a hard worker, well spoken, and a promising employee who sometimes brought his son into the shop.
"There was no indication that he was anything other than a normal fellow," Operations Manager Christopher Lowe said.
But on Oct. 23, Farrington again stopped showing up for work. He got paid that morning, used the money to buy a door for his house, then left. He had just successfully finished his three-month term as a probationary employee.
Three days later, Farrington walked into police headquarters.
ANOTHER MISSING BOY
In an intriguing twist, authorities did not charge Farrington with the death of the fifth missing boy, 12-year-old Jake Grant, whose May disappearance was long linked with the others. Four of Grant's playmates have been charged with manslaughter in his death — allegedly a swimming pool accident followed by a panicky burial. Police have not recovered his body.
Pastors and church leaders broke the news to the families of the missing boys individually on Wednesday morning.
"The answer I want to know is why he killed my child," said Lenwood Davis, who raised Deangelo McKenzie, who disappeared in May. “My child was no trouble. He was a good kid."
By Marika Lynch, The Miami Herald
