Plagued by tragedy
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Trevor Spence is planning to return to Jamaica as soon as he can. He has two main tasks at hand once he returns: bury his grandson Aiden Rose and obtain legal support for his daughter Queen-Ann Spence who has been slapped with child neglect charges in connection with the case.
“A 20 year mi nuh travel and mi just decide seh mi a fly out; and as mi fly out a bare drama,” he remarked during an interview with the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday.
“It have me every different type a way. Mi haffi deh think ’bout lawyer fi she and a think ’bout come bury mi grandson. A wah whole heap a ting deh pon mi head,” he added.
The body of seven-year-old Aiden was found, Tuesday morning, in bushes near his mother’s house in Bickersteth. The police have launched a murder investigation. Aiden was last seen by relatives on Sunday. He had been living with his stepfather and his stepfather’s mother in the community of Cambridge. On Sunday, his sister’s birthday, his mother visited and took him to her Bickersteth house. What would normally be a routine visit turned tragic as the boy was found dead two days later.
Spence said the last time he spoke with his daughter was just before she was taken in for questioning by the police.
“Mi talk to her yesterday (Tuesday) and she tell me she can’t find the youth, but mi never really get fi sit down and reason with her,” he said.
Even before little Aiden’s death, the family had become all too familiar with grief. His six-month-old sister died last year.
“A mi she call fi that too inno, a mi take up the baby and carry him go a doctor. A think him suffocate, mi go a the autopsy… It look like the blanket [the baby] draw over him head and suffocate him,” Spence disclosed.
A check with the police revealed that the case had been ruled a sudden death and foul play had been ruled out.
Queen-Ann has two other children, two girls aged nine and four. On Wednesday the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) told the Observer they have never had any reports related to the family but after Aiden’s death they have followed the usual procedure.
“We would have gone there and done our assessments and so we have provided the necessary interventions,” said CPFSA Public Relations Officer Jeneva Gordon.
It appears tragedy has shadowed the family for years. Trevor Spence said his daughter had to have surgery in England after a fall in 2008.
“Queen-Ann drop off a one three-storey building and them did haffi remove her head crown,” he explained.
Despite the string of tragic events, he said he and his daughter have had a close relationship over the years.
“Me tek her from her mother from she a eight month. Mi alone grow she and her brother…,” he said.