No one understood why eight-year-old Dion Chance wanted his father to stay with him in a crusade or why he was crying out for him in his sleep. Until yesterday morning, when the faceless body of his father Shurland Chance, 29, was found a short distance from his Taylor Trace, St Mary's Village, Moruga, home.
Chance's relatives believe he was murdered since his face looked like it was blown off. Police, however, said there was also a possibility that he was struck by a vehicle. Chance's former common-law wife Alicia Sylvestor, 31, identified him by his clothes. Videsh Charles was driving his truck around 4 am when he saw the body in the road and called the police.
At her home yesterday, Sylvestor, who has two children with Chance, said he did not have any enemies and was never in trouble with the law. However, she said hours before he was killed he was in a fight with a man at a bar in the village. She believes he was ambushed while he was coming home. "The police say his face looked like it was blown off by a sawed-off shot gun."
She said Chance attended a crusade at her mother's home, which is in front Chance's home, on Thursday, but he left before it ended. She said Dion, who was close to his father, begged him to stay. "He was crying non-stop. He say 'mammy ah really try my best and he still gone.'" Sylvestor said the pastor told her son that Dion would stop crying in three days.
And on Friday night, she said, "He (Dion) did not sleep. He keep waking up and crying for his daddy." She said they now understand why. However, Slyvestor said Dion refuses to believe his father was dead and their daughter Alisha, seven, was not aware of what was happening. An autopsy is expected to be performed on Monday at the Forensic Science Centre in Port-of-Spain to determine the cause of death. Investigations are continuing.
