Mom, girlfriend of missing man search for answers
GRANGE HILL, Westmoreland — Two women, already all too familiar with losing the men in their lives, are once again grief-stricken and searching for answers after the disappearance of 25-year-old fisherman and crab vendor Oral Morris.
His mother, 50-year-old Gloria Faval-Lawrence, buried her son Sean Russell in December 2020. The incident that claimed his life left another of her sons, Rushane Michael, injured. They were attacked by thieves after they and a group of friends travelled to Hanover to buy a bike, she said.
Morris was also killed when he ventured out to do business. Faval-Lawrence said her son left the house at 7:00 am on his motorcycle with the intention of selling four dozen crabs in his Grange Hill community.
His girlfriend, Shanique Lawrence, said they had planned to go together but he asked her to stay home with their nine-month-old child.
This is the third lover she has lost in less than two years.
“I lose three baby fada. My baby fada dead last year and one missing since year and this one missing, suh dat a three,” she said, adding that she has simply had enough of the grief.
So too has Faval-Lawrence, and she is looking to a higher power for consolation and answers. She wonders if she, or her offspring, is to blame for the tragedies that have rocked their family.
“If is something that [my children] have done wrong that [they have] not confessed to you, and if it’s me the mother that have done something wrong cause this chaos I’m asking mighty God to have mercy on me and show me that I can confess,” she appealed.
Meanwhile, Morris’ girlfriend is engaged in a game of what if. She wonders if he would still be with them if she had gone with him that day.
On July 31, she was at their house, wondering why he was so late returning, when she got a call she wishes she had not. It was the police, asking her to visit the Morgan’s Bridge station to identify a motorcycle they retrieved in a neighbouring community.
A police source told the Observer that an extensive three-day search was done, but yielded no success.
“No signs, no bloodstains, no eyewitnesses,” said the source.
Morris is of dark complexion, medium build and about 173 centimetres (5 feet 8 inches) tall.
When last seen he was wearing a blue and white T-shirt, blue short pants and pink Crocs.
Anyone knowing his whereabouts is being asked to contact the Morgan’s Bridge police station at 876-955-1375, the nearest police station or 119.
His mother, immobilised by lupus, is praying he will return to them.
“I don’t know how mi a guh manage, believe mi. But mi lef everything inna God’s hands because mi know seh dere is going to be an answer and mi nah give up. God almighty, mi nah give up,” the distraught woman said as tears ran down her cheeks and she clutched a crutch for support.