标签： Bahamas

A devastating accidental drowning has claimed the life of a 16-year-old Bahamian-American teenager, a skilled and passionate swimmer whose death has left his family grappling with shock and unanswered questions about the tragedy that unfolded on a popular Michigan lake.

Kaden Dean Smith was enjoying a family gathering at Gun Lake, located in Orangeville Township, when he went missing while swimming on August 12. After a two-day search conducted by local emergency crews, his body was recovered from the lake on August 14 by response teams working with Michigan State Police out of Barry County. Initial official records note the teen was last seen swimming on the evening of August 12.

For Kaden’s father Audley Dean, a resident of Grand Bahama with years of professional experience in the diving industry, the tragedy feels unfathomable. He describes his son as a confident, experienced swimmer who spent countless hours in and around water, and who knew Gun Lake well from regular family trips to the area. He says he has yet to receive a clear, full account of the incident; Kaden’s mother, who was at the gathering when the accident occurred, was too overwhelmed by distress to share a detailed timeline of events.

Dean shared that Kaden was swimming with a group of friends when trouble struck as the teen was heading back to shore. “They tried to get to him in time,” Dean said in an interview, his voice heavy with grief.

Born in the U.S. to an American mother and Bahamian father, Kaden maintained a deep, meaningful connection to his father’s home in Grand Bahama. That bond grew even stronger during a summer visit just last year, when Kaden spent months staying with Dean on the island. The pair spent nearly all their free time together on local beaches, with Dean never once worrying about his son’s water safety thanks to his proven swimming ability and the teen’s obvious love for the ocean.

“It was awesome,” Dean recalled of their time together, pulling out photographs of the pair’s summer outing. He had hoped this annual trip would become a beloved family tradition, with Kaden returning to Grand Bahama every one to two years to reconnect with his Bahamian roots.

Now, Dean is left to reconcile his deep confidence in his son’s skills with the sudden loss. He reflected on the unforgiving, unpredictable nature of open water, a truth he has learned from decades of working around the ocean that makes this tragedy no less devastating.

“It’s just one of those freaky things,” he said. “The ocean and water in general just don’t respect anybody, I can tell you that. I mean, I’ve watched people drown in shallow water. It’s tough.”

A growing wave of anxiety has swept through the close-knit community of Eleuthera as the search enters its seventh day for Katrina Kelly, a local entrepreneur and hospitality professional who vanished under suspicious circumstances last Tuesday night. Kelly, who serves as assistant manager at the popular Pink Sands hotel and runs a small independent car rental business, left her Bluff neighborhood home in the company of three unknown men, and no one has heard from her since.

Her 11-year-old daughter, the last person to see Kelly, gave a detailed account of the night of her disappearance to local outlet The Tribune, speaking with the full consent of her family. The child recalled that between 9 and 10 p.m., Kelly told her she was stepping out to drop off friends and collect food for the family. When the girl looked out moments later, she saw three unidentified men exit a vehicle, speak briefly with her mother, before Kelly got into the car with the group and drove away. The 11-year-old told reporters she did not recognize any of the three men, and Kelly did not share any details about who the visitors were or when she planned to return.

For Kelly’s family, this disappearance carries a devastating extra layer of grief: just 12 months prior, Kelly’s 23-year-old brother Ashantio Clevorn Johnson, a trainee officer with the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services, was fatally stabbed in an incident at the Blu Ice Restaurant and Bar. What would have been Johnson’s birthday fell just one day after Kelly vanished, adding a grim timing to the family’s ongoing nightmare.

Relatives initially did not sound the alarm immediately after Kelly went missing, as they explained she had a pattern of stepping away from daily life to grieve privately around the anniversary of her brother’s death and birthday. But in previous instances, she always informed family members of how long she would be gone and checked in to confirm she was safe. This time, there has been complete silence.

Loretta Cash-Pierre, Kelly’s cousin, lifelong best friend and godsister, told reporters that a key detail has deepened the family’s suspicion of foul play: a white Nissan Cube connected to Kelly’s car rental business is also missing. Pierre explained that the vehicle was actually Kelly’s personal car, which she only rented to people she knew and trusted. According to Pierre’s account, the three men who arrived at Kelly’s home on Tuesday night had rented the car and were returning it, which is why Kelly agreed to meet them. Pierre has already turned over all information she has about the renters to investigating officers, and also handed over Kelly’s personal electronic devices to help with the search.

Red flags began to pile up quickly: by Wednesday, Kelly failed to pick up her mother from the airport after her parent returned from a trip to the United States, a responsibility she had confirmed she would handle. By Thursday, Pierre still had not received a reply to a message she sent Kelly the night of her disappearance, and other family members – including Kelly’s 18-year-old daughter – began reaching out to report they had also not heard from the missing woman.

Weeks before her disappearance, Pierre added, Kelly posted a public social media status referencing ongoing conflict with clients who had refused to pay for their car rentals. It is unclear if that conflict is connected to her disappearance, but the detail has added to the family’s concerns.

The tragedy has left Kelly’s already grieving parents shattered, Pierre said. Just one year after losing their son, the couple now faces the nightmare of having their daughter missing, and Kelly’s father has been particularly overwhelmed by the stress of the situation. Kelly’s mother, too, has been unable to handle inquiries about the search, and asked Pierre to speak on the family’s behalf. Even her 11-year-old daughter has spoken about the relentless stress of the past week, noting that while her mother had stayed away before, she always checked in with loved ones.

Local law enforcement released an official missing person poster for Kelly on Friday, two days after she was last seen, and Pierre said investigators have been cooperative and responsive to the family’s tips. Despite the growing fears and the suspicious circumstances surrounding her disappearance, Kelly’s relatives have not given up hope, and are clinging to the belief that she will be found alive and unharmed. Speaking to reporters, Pierre emphasized that violent disappearances of this kind are deeply out of character for the small, tight-knit island community. “Eleuthera is supposed to be a safe place where you let your hair down. These kind of things don’t happen in Eleuthera,” she said.

The Bahamas is facing a growing public crisis over persistent, widespread power disruptions across New Providence and multiple Family Islands, prompting Prime Minister Philip Davis to deliver a nationally televised address Wednesday night to address ongoing reliability failures at the country’s sole electricity provider, Bahamas Power and Light (BPL).

The announcement comes at the end of another weekend of rolling blackouts, capping a brutal summer that has seen BPL grapple with repeated service failures, soaring public anger, and internal labor unrest that has further strained grid operations.

No community has been hit harder than Grand Cay, where residents have endured near-constant power loss for nearly two weeks. A seven-day outage last week was only temporarily resolved when partial service was restored early Tuesday, only for the island to fall back into full blackout Thursday night. As of Tuesday, power had not been restored, forcing most households to rely on costly gasoline-powered generators to keep refrigerators, medical equipment and other essential devices running.

Local residents describe the crisis as the worst electrical failure they have ever experienced, with the added financial burden of constant generator use pushing household budgets to the breaking point. One resident told local outlet The Tribune that the average household spends around $40 per day on gasoline, with larger properties paying far more. Barry, a long-time Grand Cay resident who powers three properties — his own home, a rental unit, and his stepmother’s residence — told reporters he spends roughly $150 daily on fuel alone. He called the ongoing situation an absolute nightmare.

The outages are not just disrupting daily life: they are also derailing back-to-school preparations for local families and hurting the island’s critical tourism sector. Barry noted that he recently lost a tourist booking after the prospective visitors learned of the ongoing power problems. “We have so many tourists that love this place, but you can’t blame them because they want to be comfortable. The power situation has put us in a chokehold,” he said.

BPL has attributed Grand Cay’s prolonged outage to a catastrophic mechanical failure of the island’s primary existing generator. The company had planned to bring a replacement generator online to restore full service, but announced over the weekend that the replacement unit requires additional repairs and extensive safety testing before it can be deployed, leaving residents in limbo with no clear timeline for full restoration.

Grand Cay is far from the only affected community in Abaco. Nearby Guana Cay has also experienced extended outages, which BPL traced to two separate cable faults, including a damaged subsea cable that serves the southern end of the island. As of Tuesday, BPL announced that repairs to the subsea cable have been completed, but work on an underground cable fault in North Guana Cay remained ongoing. BPL also reported unplanned outages in Dundas Town Tuesday evening, with no official cause identified as of press time.

Widespread outages were also reported across multiple communities in New Providence over the past weekend. BPL noted that some outages were pre-planned to allow for critical system upgrades in areas including Cowpen Road, Faith Gardens, Golden Gates and Carmichael Road. Other unplanned disruptions were blamed on tripped feeders, pre-scheduled tree-trimming work, and proactive outages designed to prevent dangerous system overloads during peak summer demand.

The ongoing reliability crisis has unfolded against a backdrop of deep internal turmoil at BPL, sparked by a new overtime policy implemented by the Davis administration. The controversy began last week when The Tribune exclusively reported that three senior employees in BPL’s fuel and performance department collected a combined total of more than $600,000 in overtime pay between May 2025 and April 2026. The administration currently spends roughly $20 million per year on employee overtime for BPL, a figure senior officials have called “unacceptable” and financially unsustainable for the public utility.

In response to the excessive overtime payouts, the administration introduced new rules that cap scheduled overtime, require formal management review for employees who repeatedly hit the overtime cap, and mandate senior leadership approval for any worker whose overtime exceeds a set percentage of their base annual salary. The Bahamas Electrical Workers Union has opposed the new policy, arguing it violates the terms of its existing collective bargaining agreement with the company. The union has already filed a formal trade dispute over the change and has instructed all members to work strictly to rule, meaning employees only work their standard scheduled hours with no voluntary overtime until the dispute is resolved.

On a routine Friday morning commute that was supposed to take just 35 minutes, passengers aboard Bahamasair flight UP136 faced an unexpected hour-long scare when a malfunction in the aircraft’s primary landing gear forced the crew to circle the Bahamian capital before a successful emergency landing.

The flight, which carried Abaco resident Jade Adderley, his wife, and their six-year-old son, had departed Marsh Harbour without incident and was nearing its destination at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) in New Providence when the problem emerged. Adderley, a passenger who shared his firsthand account of the incident, told local media he first sensed something was wrong when he failed to hear the familiar sound of the landing gear deploying as the plane began its descent.

“The pilot lowered the nose and lined up for landing, then suddenly we climbed back into the air,” Adderley recalled. The aircraft circled back and attempted a second approach, but the primary landing gear still failed to extend. That is when fear began to spread among aware passengers, Adderley said, who spent the next 45 minutes circling the airport as the crew worked to resolve the issue.

For Adderley, the long delay in the air brought traumatic memories to the surface: a recent aviation tragedy in Andros that had already claimed lives. “A lot was running through my mind the entire time we were airborne,” he said. “I kept praying the whole time. I thought, is this how it ends for us?”

Many passengers remained unaware of the severity of the issue through much of the ordeal: Adderley’s six-year-old son slept through part of the incident, and other travelers stayed occupied or napped as the plane diverted farther out to sea before returning for a final landing attempt. Adderley only quietly informed his wife of the potential danger as the plane continued to circle.

In a statement released following the incident, Bahamasair confirmed that the crew immediately followed established emergency protocols after the primary landing gear failed, activating the plane’s backup alternative landing gear system and notifying local emergency authorities as a standard precaution. Emergency responders including ambulances and police vehicles were deployed to the runway to stand by, though the landing went off without incident, and no emergency medical or rescue assistance ended up being needed.

After the plane touched down safely, Adderley thanked both the pilot and the on-ground team at LPIA for their calm, professional handling of the emergency. “God was good, we all got out safe,” he said, praising the crew’s steady response throughout the hour-long crisis.

Following the safe evacuation of all passengers, the aircraft was taken in for immediate repairs. Bahamasair confirmed that the plane was fixed, inspected, and cleared to return to regular passenger service shortly after the incident. No injuries were reported among any crew members or passengers on board.

A 30-year-old father of two, gunned down in a targeted shooting last week on Fire Trail Road East, left behind two young children — an eight-year-old and a six-month-old infant — and a shattered family still reeling from a recent previous loss. According to his older sister Daphnee Sera, jealousy over her brother’s hard-won progress and new vehicle purchases may have pushed an attacker he likely knew to take his life.

The deadly attack unfolded on Wednesday night, when a suspect dressed in a black hoodie approached Abdul Zidor’s vehicle and opened fire as Zidor attempted to escape. Police shared surveillance footage of the incident with Sera, which she says confirms the attack was premeditated and specifically targeted her brother. The footage shows Zidor sitting in his recently bought car with a friend when the gunman ran across the road toward the vehicle and began shooting. Though Zidor ran to get away, the suspect chased him down and killed him, a scene Sera described as horrific to watch.

Sera, 32, explained that the family suspects resentment over Zidor’s work ethic and recent success drove the killing. Just before the attack, Zidor had purchased two vehicles: one he planned to repair and give to the mother of his children, and the second new car he was sitting in when the gunman approached. “He was a hustler,” Sera said. “That’s what they didn’t like.”

Contrary to assumptions that may come with the public killing, Sera described her brother as a man who avoided conflict at all costs, preferring to resolve disagreements immediately rather than let lingering grudges develop. “Everybody who knew him personally knew he do not bother,” she said. “If you have a problem with him, he rather squash it so y’all don’t have no lingering beef.”

Sera was on the island of Eleuthera when the shooting happened, resting at her cousin’s home when Zidor’s girlfriend called with the devastating news. She recalled the frantic call: “She was like, ‘Sister, sister, sister, they kill him for me’. And I was like, ‘What?’ She said they kill Abdul and I scream my cousin’s name.” Grief-stricken and inconsolable, Sera traveled back to New Providence the next morning to be with the rest of the family.

The killing is the second devastating blow the family has endured in just over a year: they are still mourning the murder of a cousin killed in 2023. “Everybody take that hard and everybody trying to cope as best as we can cope because that just hit us suddenly,” Sera said. “I literally just stopped crying.”

Of eight siblings, Daphnee and Abdul were the closest, having grown up together after the pair lost their mother more than 10 years ago. They remained in constant contact as adults, and Zidor often spoke of his commitment to providing for his sister and his two young children. “He was very family-oriented,” Sera said.

The day before the shooting, the siblings joined a video call with another brother, laughing and joking like usual. Sera remembered her brother as a lighthearted, bubbly person who loved making people laugh and teasing his older sister. “Everything like he don’t take nothing serious?” she said. “He loved to get off and get on people’s nerves especially mine.”

One thing Sera said she is particularly proud of is how Zidor turned his life around after a run-in with the law in his 20s. He served a one-year prison sentence for a drug offense, but never had further legal trouble after his release. “From the one time he went to jail,” Daphnee Sera said, “that was it.” He had since dedicated himself to supporting his family and lifting up the people around him, she added.

According to tracking by The Tribune, Zidor’s murder pushes the Bahamas’ national murder count to 48 for the current calendar year. Police have not yet announced an arrest or official motive for the killing as the investigation continues.

One month has passed since a commercial aircraft operated by Flamingo Air crashed into dense shrubbery just outside the runway of San Andros airport, claiming the lives of all ten people on board. On Friday, heartbroken relatives, friends and community leaders gathered at a solemn memorial service to celebrate the lives cut tragically short, honoring each victim’s unique legacy, dreams and the lasting impact they left on those who loved them.

The memorial, hosted by The Bahamas Christian Council at Bahamas Faith Ministries International, paid tribute to each of the ten victims. The group included five members of the popular local band Da Pond: Giovanni “Geo” McKenzie, Rashad Storr, Mateo Winder, Toniquea Gilot and Tra’vis Johnson. They were joined by veteran Bahamian entertainer Melvin Henfield, known professionally as DJ Fresh. Two Andros Island natives, Quintin Myers and Macaro Rolle, experienced 27-year veteran pilot Franklyn Cambridge, and 16-year-old Nicholas Oliver Jr. also died in the July 10 crash.

The ceremony blended hymns, communal prayers, and raw, emotional reflections as family members shared personal tributes, many delivered through pre-recorded video messages. For Captain Cambridge, who piloted the doomed flight, his parents shared that his lifelong passion for aviation began in childhood, when he constantly requested toy planes as gifts. That childhood passion grew into a nearly three-decade professional career, during which he consistently pursued advanced certifications in aviation techniques, safety policies and operational procedures. His parents shared one of his most cherished personal mantras: “Falling doesn’t make you a failure. Staying down makes you a failure. Don’t ever give up.” They closed their tribute by noting that Cambridge died doing what he loved most in the world.

Archbishop Dr Elton Major and Reverend Dr Michelle Major remembered their son Melvin Henfield, recalling that his natural talent as an entertainer had the power to energize any room and create unforgettable moments for audiences. “While DJ Fresh’s music may have stopped here,” they reflected, “his song plays on in our stories, in our laughter, in every beat that reminds us of it.”

For Quintin Myers, sister Tamara Myers struggled through tears to describe her brother as the constant source of joy and connection that held their entire family together. She shared that Myers had been looking forward to an upcoming summer cruise, had recently purchased a new car and already secured his ticket for the trip—dreams that would never be realized. “He had so many aspirations that I think he never even got to realize,” Ms Myers said, “and I think a lot of people are going to miss that bubbly energy in Quinton. He was the glue for the family. He changed the room and connected all of us in such a special way.”

Giovanni McKenzie’s sister Shandera McKenzie-Nottage honored her brother through an original poem she wrote, titled A Moment of Silence. “A moment of silence for the friend who became family to so many,” the poem reads, “the encourager, the listener, the steady one, the quiet spring that held others together without ever asking who was holding him.”

In remarks to the gathered families, Bahamian Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis offered words of comfort, emphasizing that no family was walking this path of grief alone. “Each has gone on home too soon,” Mr Davis said. “10 seats, 10 families.” He urged attendees to not let the tragic circumstances of the crash overshadow the full lives the victims lived. “Their final journey does not define their lives,” he said. “We honor them for the happiness they brought to others, the work they performed, the friendships they nurtured, and the love that they shared.”

Opposition leader Michael Pintard echoed this sentiment, encouraging those in attendance to preserve the victims’ legacies by leaning into joy in their own daily lives. “And so I encourage all of us, as I encourage myself,” Mr Pintard said, “that we have to suck some joy out of this life every single day because we have no idea when it is our last.”

An unexpected residential fire has left a Johnson Road family of five homeless just days before two young children are set to begin the new school year, turning a routine day of work and back-to-school preparation into a devastating crisis. Diana Desir, a mother of two young children who had lived in the three-bedroom family home since 2019, recounted how a random good Samaritan’s quick thinking saved all the people inside the property when the blaze broke out, even as the incident left her family facing an uncertain future.

When the fire ignited on Wednesday, Desir was already at her workplace, and her two young children were not at the property. Inside the home at the time were Desir’s boyfriend’s mother and two young nieces. None of the people inside initially detected the fire, which started in the property’s external meter box. That changed when a passing motorist noticed the flames and repeatedly honked their car horn to alert those inside.

Desir shared that the woman inside initially ignored the repeated horn blasts, as she was not expecting any visitors. It was only when the driver exited their vehicle and began shouting that the entire home was at risk that the group realized the danger. Immediately, the woman gathered the two nieces from a back room and rushed everyone out of the building to safety, moments before the fire spread deeper into the structure. The quick-acting driver then placed emergency calls to local police and fire response teams to contain the blaze.

Desir did not receive any news of the fire until she returned home around 3 p.m., after finishing a morning of work, picking up her children, and completing back-to-school shopping for the upcoming term. When she pulled up to her home and saw the extent of the fire damage, she broke down in tears. She told reporters that there had been no sign of trouble when she left for work that morning, and she had even spent part of the morning giving thanks for her home and family. To go from that gratitude to having nowhere to stay overnight was a devastating shock that she never could have anticipated.

Right now, Desir’s biggest worry is securing permanent, suitable housing for her family, which includes her 1-year-old and 2-year-old children. In the current tight housing market, finding affordable, child-friendly rental properties has become a major challenge, she explained. While the fire destroyed most of the family’s belongings—including clothing, irreplaceable family photos, personal documents, and many of the children’s new school supplies—there have been small moments of luck: the family was able to recover the oldest child’s school shoes and backpack, and after a search of the damaged property the day after the fire, they found all the children’s birth certificates completely undamaged by smoke or flames.

In the wake of the disaster, community support has poured in to help the family get back on their feet. Local community members have donated clothing and school supplies to make sure the two children can start the school year as planned: the oldest is set to begin his second year of schooling, while the youngest will attend school for the first time. Desir’s employer has stepped up to cover the cost of a hotel stay for the family for their first week displaced, and the local Department of Social Services has provided additional support for temporary shelter.

Despite the devastating loss of the home they built together, Desir said she is remaining optimistic and focused on staying strong for her children. Most importantly, she emphasized, all of her family members escaped the fire without injury. She expressed deep gratitude for the outpouring of support from the community, and the family is now working to secure a new permanent home to rebuild their lives.