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Men from the Claremont community in St. Elizabeth went into the cave to help recover the body of Howard Smith on Wednesday.
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Residents and the police joined forces to help pull the body from the cave.
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Deputy Superintendent of Police Coleridge Minto, commanding officer for the St. Elizabeth police division, was among those in the recovery effort.
DSP Coleridge Minto is flanked on either side by two of the men who went into the cave.
The search for a missing St. Elizabeth man ended in tragedy on Wednesday after his body was recovered from a cave 50 feet deep.
Howard Smith had been reported missing on Sunday when he did not return home in Claremont.
On Tuesday, relatives and friends found his body in the cave.
Efforts to retrieve the body of the 54-year-old farmer began on that evening with firefighters, but it was called off due to poor lighting.
When the mission resumed on Wednesday, it was all hands on deck, as residents and the police struggled collectively to pull the man’s body to the surface.
After more than an hour of pulling and using several techniques, the body of Mr. Smith was removed from the cave sometime after 11:00 a.m.
Deputy Superintendent Coleridge Minto, commanding officer for the St. Elizabeth police division, thanked the residents for their diligent assistance in the operation, which he said lasted for more than 16 hours in total. In particular, he commended three men who he called brave for venturing into the hole to help recover the body.
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