Slain nurse Hyancinth Hayden. Photo: Jamaica Observer

Sources close to the investigations told the Jamaica Observer West that Hayden's husband, Ashley, was the minors' intended target.

In another revelation, multiple sources have said that the boys had planned on getting a gun to carry out further criminal activities.

"They met in jail where they planned to get a gun which they say they wanted to use to rob rich people," a source close to the investigation told the Observer West last evening.

On December 31, Ashley Hayden left the family home around 3:00 pm to purchase a phone card and other items for his wife at a community shop. On his return, about 15 minutes later, he discovered the blood-soaked body of his wife slumped on the kitchen step. Her upper body had multiple stab wounds.

Yesterday, the grief-stricken husband, who has had to seek medical attention since the incident, said one of the accused recently came to him seeking employment.

He surmised that the juvenile did not desire to work, but only wanted to familiarise himself with the property.

"Mi give him something to do, him come one day, him don't come back," the grieving widower told Observer West.

"The boy come and him scrape up round the place, but all this time ah observe him ah observe the place."

He also alleged that recently the same accused, who also lives in the neighbourhood, asked his wife for a cellular phone to which she obliged. The other accused lives in a neighbouring community.

"When the boy come here he tell [Hyancinth] he doesn't have any money to buy a phone. She take up a Nokia and give the boy. He said he doesn't have any money to buy SIM and she give him $500 to buy it..." alleged the husband whose face was etched with grief and pain.

According to an Observer West source close to the case, the boys lurked in bushes close to the Hayden's house and waited until the husband drove out. They then stealthily made their way into the house.

They were rummaging in a section of the house, when a drawer dropped from one of them and alarmed the retired nurse who was watching television in the living room.

When she surprised them in the house, they attacked and stabbed her multiple times.

Before leaving the house, the boys allegedly took two attaché cases belonging to the distraught husband, which they forcibly opened.

They then made a hasty exit from the house upon hearing the motor car, signalling the return of Mr Hayden.

The two accused, who have been charged with murder and robbery, are booked to make a first appearance in the Trelawny Children's Court in Clark's Town today.

Members of the Trelawny Diaspora in the United States have expressed deep shock and disappointment with the savage murder.

Derrick Scott, president of Friends of Trelawny Association Inc (FOTA), a New York-based group that organises an annual Trelawny reunion in New York, said the killing was especially shocking for "Trelawnyites" in the Diaspora because "many of us dream of returning to Jamaica, like Matron Hayden did, but are concerned about such senseless killings which serve only as an indictment on the parish".

The death of the senior citizen brought to 22 the number of murders recorded in the Trelawny Police Division in 2014. This was four fewer than the 26 for the previous year. The killing of the retired nurse was the 1,005th and final murder recorded by the police for 2014.