BC-raised woman killed in Caribbean nation of Antigua

Photo: Contributed

Friends and family of a Victoria-raised woman who was killed in her home on the Caribbean island of Antigua are remembering her as someone who was always the life of the party.

Jane Finch, 66, was fatally stabbed after a woman broke into her Antigua home Monday evening, according to reports in a local news outlet, Antigua News Room. Finch called police to report a break-in, but by the time officers arrived, she had died, the outlet reported.

A 21-year-old woman is in police custody.

Finch was strong-willed and outgoing, with a large community of friends in both Antigua and Victoria, said her brother, John Finch, who lives in Victoria.

“If you were in a room with Jane, you knew that Jane was in the room,” he said of his younger sister.

A world traveller, Finch ventured to England and France in the 1970s before moving aboard a yacht for several years to live and work.

In the 1980s, she made herself a permanent home in Antigua, a ­Caribbean island with a population of about 90,000 people.

On Monday evening, she posted a cry for help on Facebook. “I need help. There’s a deranged woman trying to break into my house. She’s starting to break the windows. I’ve called the police. Please call the police. Please help,” she wrote.

“It’s probably the last thing she did before she died. It’s tragic,” John Finch said.