Dominican national found dead in a vehicle outside a Kingston St. Vincent school

Police in St Vincent and the Grenadines are investigating the discovery of a partially decomposed body found in a vehicle parked outside the Kingstown Preparatory School.

The deceased has been identified as Gregory Linton, 43, of Dominica/Glen. He was an Agricultural Engineer and worker with the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI).

The Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force says a postmortem examination will be conducted on the body to ascertain the cause of death.

Meanwhile, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) says it is left in shock and deep sadness over the passing of their dear colleague Gregory Linton.

The Institute in memoriam says Greg, a Dominican national, has served as the CARDI Representative in St Vincent and the Grenadines since 2017. He was a qualified Agricultural Engineer specialising in Agricultural Parasitology and a Plant Health Specialist by training.

Before being promoted to the role of CARDI Representative, Greg was employed as a Research Assistant at CARDI Dominica, working primarily under the Black Sigatoka project, evaluating banana and plantain accessions tolerant to black Sigatoka disease (BSD) as part of an Integrated Management Framework for black Sigatoka disease.

Before his passing, Greg was involved in implementing the Regional Coconut and Sweet Potato projects in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Last week, he participated in a Regional Coconut Workshop in Grenada, where he shared his experiences managing coconut pests.

It says one of Greg's most significant achievements was being part of a team which developed a locally produced lime sulphur base organic post-harvest treatment for dasheen. This treatment allowed farmers to restart export to the lucrative European market successfully.

At the time of his passing, he was working with local and international partners to fine-tune this treatment and test more environmentally friendly pesticides as post-harvest treatment options.

Greg was the face of CARDI on multi-agency teams that conducted post-disaster risk assessments for the agricultural sector following natural disasters across CARICOM.

He was involved in assessments following the passage of Hurricane Maria (Dominica, 2017), Hurricane Dorian (the Bahamas, 2019), flooding (Guyana, 2021) and the eruption of La Soufrière volcano (St Vincent and the Grenadines, 2021).

His leadership on these missions was always efficient and highly commendable, facilitating quick decision-making to minimise loss of livelihoods and reduce suffering.

Greg was an outstanding researcher. His CARDI family will remember him as a dedicated, compassionate professional who was always willing to go the extra mile - many times at short notice. His sound technical insights will be missed.

Before his time at CARDI, he was a Plant Quarantine Inspector at the Ministry of Agriculture, Dominica. He completed a pre-professional internship in Mexico in a campaign against Huanglongbing (HLB) in citrus.

He graduated with a Master of Science in Plant Protection. He was also qualified as an Agricultural Engineer specialising in Agricultural Parasitology (Plant Parasites) from the Chapingo Autonomous University, Texcoco, Estado de México, Mexico.

(Loop News –St Vincent)