When Randre David Lescombe, also known as Errol Simpson, left his homeland Jamaica last week for Cayman he had hopes of building a better life for his children, but a tragic twist of fate brought the expectant father’s dreams to a sudden end.
Lescombe, 39, was killed in a single-vehicle crash on the Esterley Tibbetts Highway on Wednesday night. Another occupant of the vehicle, a white Toyota Mark X, was arrested. He has since been granted bail while the police inquiry continues.
For his relatives back in Jamaica, Lescombe’s sudden death remains a shock.
“It just makes me feel like it’s not real, but then it’s real,” his cousin, Lyssette Morgan, said on Friday.
Morgan, speaking with the Cayman Compass in a Zoom interview from Jamaica, said his family there is not taking the loss well and are searching for answers on how the incident happened.
“Some of the information is not clear,” she said.
Morgan, who once resided in Cayman, said the family has reached out to the RCIPS for details around the crash; however, Morgan also appealed for the community to be compassionate.
“It is sad. It’s a tragedy, but we know that the Jamaican community in Cayman is strong, it’s big, and [there is a lot] of stigma in place. But then we don’t know when things will happen. I would implore the community in Cayman, instead of bashing the circumstances around how he was deceased, to help in any way for [his body] to come down [to Jamaica]… the family will greatly appreciate it,” she said.
Police said the fatal crash occurred shortly before 11:20pm Wednesday, when the car, which was travelling southward along the road, crashed into a fence just north of the Butterfield roundabout.
The 39-year-old father was later declared dead.
Opportunity to earn
Lescombe, who was staying in Bodden Town, was expecting his third child in November and had decided to take up an offer to work in construction in Grand Cayman, Morgan said.
This was his first time coming for work here, she added.
“Everybody is looking that opportunity to help your family member. So when we hear the news it [was] hard,” she said.
Lescombe, she said, was trying to earn some money to send his teenage son to high school and young daughter to primary school.
“He went up there with the intention to help also to get things ready for the birth of [his] child. It’s really hard, and I know that [the] mother is gonna need a lot of things [because] the main caregiver is now deceased,” she said.
Morgan recounted seeing her cousin last week before he left for Cayman, which turned out to be the final time she would see him alive.
“We grew up together [even though] I’m much older than him. He was like the life of the family when it come to get-togethers, [he was a] fun-loving person. We were close,” she said, adding that they grew up like brother and sister since their parents were siblings.
Painful reminder
She said she did not realise that Lescombe had already left for Cayman and had planned to call him after seeing his location posted on his WhatsApp status.
Now looking back, she said, she wished she had the chance to call him and hear his voice once again.
“I said, ‘All right, I’ll call him. I’ll call him, I’m going call him’, and then somehow I got distracted doing other things… But I didn’t make the time,” she said.
She urged others not to put off for another day what they can do today.
“When [I heard about his death] it feel like somebody really give me a hard hit. Make sure when your family members travel to another country talk to them, communicate, find ways of corresponding with them, find out what is going on, and also inform them when [you] travel,” Morgan said.
She said when she got the call that her cousin was killed, her initial reaction was one of disbelief.
“It’s a loss… it’s a real loss,” she sobbed.
She said both Lescombe’s parents are deceased and her mother looked after the 39-year-old man as her own son.
“She is not doing well,” Morgan said of her mother.
She added the family wants to bring Lescombe home to be buried in his Down Castle, St. Andrew hometown.
She is appealing for any support for the family and Lescome’s three kids.
“The help is needed because we know that money’s not easy to come by. The family has to be thinking about [his] family, the burial and the preparation here in Jamaica and it’s not easy,” she said.
Anyone interested in assisting the family can email [email protected] or donate directly to NCB account #305366188.
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