A Queens model whose ambition took her to Jamaica in search of work to save money for film school has been found dead, her throat slashed, on the side of a rural road on the island.
The body of Desiree Gibbon, 26, was discovered Sunday morning in the small northwestern town of Anchovy, about 4 miles from Montego Bay.
Residents spotted the woman’s blood-caked body in the bushes and alerted the police, according to the LoopJamaica.com website. Her horrific death left her family reeling.
“We were very close, so you can imagine, when I got the news, ‘devastated’ doesn’t begin to describe it,” said Gibbon’s mother, Andrea Cali-Gibbon.
She described her daughter as a world traveler who once taught English to kids in Brazil and had one day hoped to be like globe-trekking chef Anthony Bourdain.
“She wanted to travel to countries and try things and experience cultures,” the mom said.
She and Gibbon’s father — who is from Jamaica — planned to fly to the island Friday morning.
Cali-Gibbon couldn’t fathom how her daughter met a violent end in such a beautiful paradise.
“The brutality is what killed me. She was beaten and had her throat sliced open,” Cali-Gibbon said.
“She was a tough cookie,” the mom added. “I know she fought until she drew her last breath. I know she did. And I’m certain that her last thought was, ‘Will my mom be OK if I don’t make it?’ “
Gibbon’s grandmother owns a hotel in Jamaica, and she stayed there while she looked for bartending work. Gibbon hoped to save money to attend film school in Europe, her mom said.
The young beauty contestant arrived in Jamaica on Oct. 20. Her mom said she was supposed to fly back to Queens on Thursday.
Gibbon was excited to return home and planned to work at a friend’s record label.
“It’s finally happening, Mom. I’m in the right place at the right time,” Cali-Gibbon recalled her daughter saying during what would be their last phone call, on Thanksgiving night.
Cali-Gibbon said she believes the killer lured her daughter away from the hotel.
“She didn’t venture out on her own. It was somebody she trusted,” the mom said.
Jamaican authorities identified Gibbon’s body by taking her photo to resorts in the Montego Bay area. One of the hotels was the inn her grandmother owns.
The coroner’s office will determine the cause of Gibbon’s death. Jamaican police did not respond to emailed requests for information.
Gibbon was one of 12 people murdered over the weekend in St. James Parish, a county with a population of about 184,000, the Western Mirror website reported.
The woman, whose nickname was “Desi,” grew up in Hollis. She attended Frank Sinatra School of the Arts High School in Astoria for a year and graduated from Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside.
She competed in beauty pageants, and modeled and acted from the time she was a baby.
Her parents have started a GoFundMe page to raise the money they need to bring her body home. By Thursday evening, they had raised nearly $16,000 from 248 donors.
“I am astounded at your generosity,” Cali-Gibbon wrote Thursday to the donors.
“There are just no words for this tragic event. We are destroyed and broken beyond repair.”
With AARON SHOWALTER
