A tragic industrial accident has claimed the life of a 52-year-old Jamaican man in Grand Bahama, who died after becoming trapped between a vehicle and a car-crushing machine at a local junkyard. His body was only recovered by worried relatives who launched a full search after being unable to contact him for more than a day.
Local news outlet The Tribune has confirmed the victim as Leon Taylor, an employee at a service station operated by FOCOL, though police have not yet released his name to the public. Taylor’s unresponsive body was discovered just after 9pm on Sunday at the rear of Kent Motors Ltd, a junkyard located along Queen’s Highway in Freeport.
The timeline of the incident remains under preliminary investigation, with conflicting accounts emerging about Taylor’s authorization to be on the property. According to official police statements, Taylor was a regular visitor to the junkyard seeking mechanical parts, and was reportedly granted permission to enter the premises on Saturday to collect electrical components. However, Dave Atkinson, the owner of Kent Motors, denies giving Taylor approval to be on the property after hours on Saturday, when the business was already closed to the public.
Falan Jean-Jacques, Taylor’s cousin, shared that family members grew alarmed when repeated attempts to reach Taylor went unanswered. They first checked his home and his regular workplace before tracing his steps to Kent Motors, where they found his personal car parked outside the entrance. A relative had already spoken to Taylor at the junkyard during Saturday afternoon, confirming he had made it to the location that day.
The family immediately contacted Atkinson, who agreed to join their search effort. After combing the large junkyard property, relatives eventually found Taylor pinned between a Honda vehicle and the site’s car-crushing machinery, and promptly called emergency services.
Superintendent Nicholas Johnson, head of the local Criminal Investigation Department, explained that first responders required heavy equipment to reposition the vehicles and free Taylor from the trap. Once extricated, emergency medical services rushed to provide immediate medical care, but their efforts were in vain. Taylor was pronounced dead at the scene, with no signs of life detected by medical personnel.
Atkinson told reporters he was contacted around 8pm on Sunday as he was leaving church, and immediately traveled to the junkyard to assist with the search. During the search, the team noted several vehicles throughout the yard had their doors and hoods propped open, indicating someone had been sorting through them looking for specific parts in the hours before the accident. After spotting the open tailgate of a Honda Fit, the group searched the nearby area and found Taylor’s trapped body.
Atkinson emphasized that he has known Taylor for an extended period, but reiterated that no permission was granted for Taylor to enter the yard that Saturday night. “I had no communications with him for him to be in the yard,” Atkinson said, adding that the business is completely closed on Sundays, and he never grants access to the unattended yard after hours.
However, Jean-Jacques pushed back on the claim that Taylor was trespassing, noting that Taylor had a longstanding, friendly relationship with the Atkinson family, and regularly collected vehicle parts from the junkyard with the family’s knowledge, paying for the parts after picking them up. “Yes, the owner and we are family friends,” she said. “Mr Atkinson of Kent Motors and we are family friends.” She added that Taylor would often trade parts with the Atkinson family as well, creating a mutually beneficial regular arrangement.
Atkinson separately acknowledged that Kent Motors has dealt with repeated issues of unauthorized after-hours entry for years, with people sneaking onto the property to steal scrap metal, copper wiring, catalytic converters and valuable auto components from unused vehicles. Police have not made any claims that Taylor was involved in theft, nor have they suggested his death is connected to the ongoing problem of trespassing at the site.
Jean-Jacques remembered her cousin as a kind, hard-working and dependable member of the community, saying “He was hard-working, easy-going all the time. He was a sweetheart. Always there when you need him.” The tragedy comes just months after Taylor traveled back to Jamaica to attend his mother’s funeral, leaving his family reeling from an unexpected second devastating loss.
For the grieving family, the sudden loss remains difficult to process. “It’s still unreal,” Jean-Jacques said. “You never expect a loved one to go like that.” Taylor’s siblings living in the United States, the United Kingdom and Jamaica have all been notified of his death. An official autopsy has been scheduled to confirm the exact cause of death, as police continue their preliminary investigation into the accident.