The family of a British former nurse whose body was found in a concrete-filled cesspit in Jamaica have spoken of their devastation at the loss of a “wonderful, selfless woman.”

Barbara Scott-Jones, 61, from Leeds, was found on Friday after a week-long search. Jamaican police are hunting for a local man who had been assisting Mrs Scott-Jones with the renovation of her holiday home near Montego Bay.

Omar Reid, 30, has not been seen since the family of Mrs Scott-Jones reported her missing on the evening of Friday, March 14. Her family rejected suggestions that she had been in a relationship with Mr Reid.

As two of her children flew to join their sister and Mrs Scott-Jones’s former husband in the island yesterday, the family released a statement appealing for anyone with information to come forward.

“Mum was a wonderful, selfless woman who had given most of her life to others in bringing up her three children and in her 20-year marriage with Charles, with whom she remained close friends,” it said.

“She also followed a career in nursing for many years in Leeds. She was loved by many, including her brother Paul, and it is a tragic loss and one that we will never recover from.”

The family statement also responded to speculation that she had been having a relationship with Mr Reid.

“Omar Reid was an experienced renovator who was known to Barbara as a local man who had been assisting her with the property improvements such as replacement windows etc.

“Details of work undertaken and amounts paid were recorded by Barbara on a daily basis. There is no evidence she was intimately linked with this man.”

British consular officials were to join the family in the northwest parish of Jamaica yesterday.

Her daughter, Salina Jones-Yildiz, who raised the alarm, last spoke to her mother on March 11. Her mother would ring regularly, and after a few days out of contact, Mrs Jones-Yildiz became concerned.

She said she called the house and spoke to Mr Reid, who said that her mother had gone away with another man to pick up some CDs and that she would be back on Friday.

“I knew something wasn’t right as she would never go away without telling me,” she said. “I kept ringing the house again and again but there was no answer,” she said. “I then received a text at 11pm on Saturday. It said, ‘Ring you when get home. B Scott’. I was very suspicious by this point as she always signed off her texts with ‘Mum’.

Ms Scott-Jones was found on Friday with several wounds to her head, broken teeth and a fractured skull. A postmortem examination suggested that she had been killed between Wednesday, March 12, and Friday, March 14.

Constable Craig Sterling of St James police in Jamaica said they could not confirm reports that Mr Reid and Ms Scott-Jones were in a relationship.

He said: “He is actually her caretaker. We’re not sure how close a relationship they had. But he is being sought at the moment.” A Foreign Office spokesman said that officials from the High Commission in Jamaica had been in touch with close relatives who were also in the country to offer assistance.

It is the first reported death of a tourist in Jamaica this year. More than 1,400 people were killed in Jamaica in 2007, including at least 19 police officers. More than 175,000 Britons visited in 2006, up 7 per cent on 2005, and there was a rise of 14 per cent last year.

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