The family of Vincent Albert Fausett who died in June in a minibus at 28 Miles, Mabura Trail, from carbon monoxide poisoning, is experiencing financial hardship since his death as he was the sole breadwinner of the home.
According to police, 44-year-old Fausett of 40 Plantation Ross, West Coast Berbice, along with Leon Achee, a 42-year-old bus driver, of Lot 245 Sixth Street, Martyr’s Ville, Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, and Reva Bovell, a 24-year-old unemployed female of South Amelia’s Ward, Linden, were found dead in a minibus at 28 Miles, Mabura Trail.
Vincent’s wife, Nilesha Fausett, in an interview with Stabroek News yesterday, explained that her family is still mourning the loss of her husband. Vincent was a father of seven and was the sole breadwinner of the home. He was an excavator operator and had left his West Coast Berbice home on May 29 for 10 Mile along the Mabura trail.
Nilesha explained that her son who accompanied Vincent to the worksite, called on June 22 and stated that his father was on his way home. The bereaved woman explained that she waited all day but her husband did not show. Nilesha recounted how excited she and the children were to see her husband but suspicions grew after hours passed.
Vincent could not be reached by cellphone since he had complained about the signal within the area. His last phone call to his family was on the Saturday before his death. The couple had been together for 27 years and was expected to celebrate their 23rd wedding anniversary on August 18.
“After I see certain hours pass, I was worried but then I receive a call saying that he die in an accident but we didn’t hear nothing and I didn’t believe. We went to town to find out about accidents but police said they didn’t receive the accident report.”
Subsequently, a video surfaced on Facebook showing incident along the trail, and according to Nilesha, a friend visited their home and showed her the video. However, despite this evidence, she was still hopeful that her husband was alive and was skeptical that the person seen in the video was him. The man was deemed unidentified at the time of the incident until the family received a call to visit the Memorial Gardens Mortuary to view the body.
Vincent’s son, who had called his mother while his father was on his way home, explained that Vincent had collected half of his salary which is equivalent to $300,000 along with 5 pennyweight raw gold. The wife further mentioned that her husband’s wallet contained two identification cards, a copy of his TIN certificate and a licence. The wife was given the wallet with the documents listed except the gold and the money.
“My son call and say ‘mommy daddy coming home.’ He tell me that he father draw half month salary because he didn’t work for the whole month because something happen to the excavator so that’s why he coming home. When I show up at the mortuary the next day to identify the body, police give me the wallet and $3,500 in an envelope to clean off he skin and that was it.”
The woman told this newspaper that her life became difficult after her husband’s death. “You know all the days of your life you’re happy and then life just come and shut down on you just like that.”
She added that her husband was without a job for a few months before being offered work at 10 Miles, Mabura, in May. She said she was not pleased about her husband going to the location and begged him to stay home. However, Vincent was determined to provide for the family and without delay, went to the location the following day. The children, she said, are traumatized because they shared a close relationship with their father, and to make matters worse, their savings had to be used for the burial leaving her forced to provide for the family.
“He went home long, because some people that he was working with didn’t pay he and he take them to Ministry of Labour and nothing happen. This time when he get the call to go this place I didn’t want he go because he never went there and I beg he and say don’t go… My children don’t want to sleep home and they are not eating. My husband was a quiet person. He didn’t like talking a lot because he doesn’t like problems. I can’t explain how I feeling. It really hurting to see the way how he died. I believe that if the road did do that wouldn’t have happen because according to what I hear, the bus was stuck and then my husband use to tell me how the rain falling bad there.”
The post-mortem examinations performed on the three persons found in a minibus concluded that all three died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Commander of Region Ten, Super-intendent Guy Nurse, along with a party of police visited the scene. “Upon inspection, the minibus appeared to be stuck in a deep pothole with the rear of the vehicle submerged. The vehicle’s engine was on, and all windows were locked. It is suspected that the victims had slept in the bus the entire night,” the police report stated. It added, “It is believed that the bus’s air conditioning was on while they slept, which may have allowed carbon monoxide from the exhaust to seep back into the bus.”
