标签: Bahamas

巴哈马

  • Victim’s final call to family before dying in Andros crash

    Victim’s final call to family before dying in Andros crash

    For seven months, the Rolle family had counted down the days to Macaro Rolle’s long-awaited return home to Andros. The 24-year-old certified lifeguard, who worked at the remote Ocean Cay resort, had navigated a multi-legged journey – a boat ride to Bimini, a connecting flight to New Providence, and a final charter flight on Flamingo Air bound for San Andros Airport – to get back to the loved ones he had not seen in half a year. His father waited at the airport arrivals gate to greet him; what unfolded on Friday would instead leave the family shattered by a preventable loss, they say.

    Anthony Rolle, Macaro’s brother, was working at a location opposite the airport when a resident from their Nicholls Town community ran to deliver the devastating news: a small plane had crashed just off the runway. A second aircraft that had been trailing the Flamingo Air flight confirmed the passenger list, and within minutes, Anthony, their father, and other family members launched a desperate search for the wreckage.

    Thick black smoke billowing from the crash site near the end of the runway was visible from the family’s starting point, but blocked rural roads cut off direct access. The delay would cost Macaro his life, his family says. As they fought to clear a path toward the wreckage, the injured young man managed to place a desperate phone call to his relatives from the charred aircraft.

    In that final, heart-wrenching call, Macaro sounded initially strong, pleading for his family to reach him quickly. “Daddy, Daddy, please hurry up, come for me, Daddy. Y’all hurry up, come,” he told them, according to Anthony. He stayed on the line, describing the terrifying final moments of the flight – telling his family the aircraft had begun shaking violently and uncontrollably before impacting the ground – right up until the family could see the wreckage. When Anthony called out to him that they had arrived, the line went abruptly dead.

    By the time the family fought through blocked roads and reached Macaro, roughly two hours after the crash, he could barely respond. When Anthony called his name, the only reply was a faint, almost inaudible hum. Macaro had sustained catastrophic full-body burns in the crash: all his clothing had burned away, and his skin was badly damaged from head to toe.

    The family carried Macaro out of the brush in his father’s pickup truck and rushed him to the local clinic, where the small on-island medical team did everything they could to stabilize him. But the remote island lacked the specialized burn care Macaro needed, requiring an air ambulance to evacuate him to a larger facility in North Andros. For another two hours, the family waited for the emergency aircraft to arrive.

    Macaro’s fight ended roughly 20 minutes before the air ambulance touched down. “They land after he already died,” Anthony said. The family believes that if emergency response had been faster, and if on-island medical access had been more robust, their brother would still be alive today. “The doctor tried all he could,” Anthony noted, but limited resources on Andros could not overcome the long delays in reaching care.

    The tragedy has been compounded by the quiet plans Macaro had made for this trip: he had been building his own three-bedroom home on Andros, waiting for contractors to finish installing windows and doors ahead of his move-in. He never got the chance to step across the threshold of the home he built.

    Remembered by his family as a warm, loving man deeply devoted to his faith, Macaro wove prayer into every small part of his daily routine. “Before Macaro eat or drink or answer his phone or leave outside, he have to pray before he do that,” Anthony said. “So if you can’t wait until he finish praying, you could leave him.” The family says they have no doubt that he said a prayer before boarding the flight that would take him home for the final time. Now, their once-joyful homecoming preparations have turned into funeral arrangements, leaving their parents distraught and the entire family grieving a life cut tragically short.

  • Baha Men musician among victims as mother mourns her gifted son

    Baha Men musician among victims as mother mourns her gifted son

    For 27-year-old Mateo Winder, the ritual of checking in with his mother after every trip was as steady as the beat of a drum he played. It was a family tradition he had followed for years: send a message when he departed, and follow up with a call once he landed safely. On that fateful Friday, that simple routine became the final goodbye.

    When Winder boarded a Flamingo Air small charter plane bound for North Andros, alongside other members of the local group Da Pond Band, his last text to his mother Ronella Hinsey was just one word: “Leaving.” Today, that single message is all she has left of her son, one of 10 people killed when the aircraft crashed shortly before landing at San Andros Airport. The band had been traveling to the island to perform at a scheduled regatta event.

    Hinsey, a police inspector stationed in Abaco for work, first got the chilling hint of disaster when her mother called with early reports of the crash. Immediately, she reached out to Winder via WhatsApp, begging him to confirm he had landed unharmed. The message never went through. What followed was hours of agonizing, frantic searching for answers, as she called every authority, relative and contact she could think of to untangle what had happened.

    For a brief, torturous moment, Hinsey allowed herself to hope. An aviation official who checked the passenger list told her Winder’s name did not appear on the manifest. “Okay, Lord, he’s not on it,” she remembered thinking, relief flooding her. That hope crumbled quickly into devastating dread, as calls went unanswered and contacts near the crash site avoided sharing the truth. When her brother, who had traveled to the crash site at her request, stopped picking up her calls, Hinsey knew. She had lost her son.

    In the days since the crash, the grieving mother — who also serves as a gospel minister — has opened up about the quiet premonition that haunted her all week before the accident. “All that week, I just kept hearing or seeing something happening to my son and him being hurt, and he actually died,” she said. “I started praying and cancelling what I saw, and pleading the blood of Jesus over him and reading God’s word that he should not die but live to declare the works of the Lord.”

    Even in her overwhelming grief, Hinsey says she has not questioned her faith. “I didn’t ask the Lord why, because I don’t want to question God, because He knows why everything happens,” she said. “Human understanding, we won’t understand it.” Instead, she has prayed that her son’s death will not be meaningless. “I told the Lord, if that is your will, you know everything before it happens. And I said, if that is your will, then so be it. But I want my son’s death, I want him to get glory out of it. I don’t want him to die in vain.”

    Winder, who never married and had no children, built his entire life around three pillars: his faith, his family, and his music. A musical prodigy from toddlerhood, he began “playing” at two and a half years old, beating rhythms on his mother’s hairbrush and comb at the foot of her bed. By adulthood, he was a multi-instrumental talent, skilled on drums, keyboard, guitar, bass, and saxophone, and a gifted vocalist to boot. He performed regularly with both Da Pond Band and the Grammy Award-winning Baha Men, and ran his own successful business renting musical and entertainment equipment across New Providence.

    Isaiah Taylor, leader of the Baha Men, called Winder like a son to him, recalling that the young musician had just joined the group for a performance in Milwaukee as their keyboard player shortly before the crash. “This is absolutely a big blow,” Taylor said. “It’s a big, big, big blow to the industry.”

    In the wake of the tragedy, Taylor is issuing a urgent warning to fellow musicians who travel to small island events for performances: prioritize safety over a quick paycheck. “I will warn all of these musicians: do not be comfortable to jump on these charters to go to regatta to make a couple of dollars. Safety comes first. Make sure know what you’re flying, who you’re flying with,” he urged. Taylor added that he has avoided flying on small charters since a terrifying trip in the 1980s, and warned performers to consider the weight of their gear when boarding small aircraft. “If you are doing it, don’t put no kind of equipment on the plane, the little plane that you’re flying on. Because every piece of equipment that you would put on that plane also carries weight, and the plane can only lift with so much weight.”

    To date, Bahamian authorities have not released any information on the cause of the crash, nor have they indicated that excess load played a role in the disaster. For Hinsey, Winder was far more than a talented musician — he was a warm, loving light who could turn anyone’s bad day around with a joke and a smile. “He was always smiling and if anybody had a bad day, he would come there and he would make you laugh,” she said.

    For years, the pre-trip check-in was a guarantee: Winder would leave, arrive, and call home. This time, the “Leaving” message came. The return call never will.

  • Bodies of 10 North Andros crash victims returned to Nassau as investigation continues

    Bodies of 10 North Andros crash victims returned to Nassau as investigation continues

    In the wake of a fatal plane crash that claimed 10 lives in North Andros last Friday, the remains of all victims have been transported back to New Providence. A solemn ceremony was held on the airport tarmac Wednesday night, where Christian Council President Mario Moxey led interfaith prayers for the deceased and their families, who are now navigating overwhelming grief in the aftermath of the tragedy.

    As the community mourns, the Bahamas’ Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority (AAIA) has launched a formal, methodical probe into the circumstances of the crash, issuing its first public update this week and calling on the public to avoid unfounded speculation while investigators piece together evidence.

    According to the AAIA statement, investigators completed the initial phase of work at the crash site over the weekend, securing the perimeter, documenting every detail of the scene, and preserving all physical evidence recovered from the area. Teams have already begun gathering critical documentation related to the flight, including aircraft operational logs, maintenance records, meteorological data from the time of the flight, and communications logs from air traffic services. The authority noted that the investigation is being conducted in full compliance with both the domestic Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority Act and global international aviation safety protocols.

    Per standard international procedure, all countries that are eligible to participate in the probe have been formally notified, and those nations may appoint accredited representatives to join the investigation team if they choose. The AAIA has appointed Chief Investigator Kendall Dorsett Jr to serve as the lead investigator-in-charge for the entire case.

    Investigators plan to conduct a comprehensive review of every potential factor that could have contributed to the crash, with examinations spanning the physical condition of the aircraft itself, flight operation procedures, the aircraft’s maintenance history, weather conditions at the time of the crash, air traffic control actions, and any other relevant evidence that may come to light during the probe.

    “At this early stage of the investigation, no conclusions have been reached about the root cause or any contributing factors that led to the accident,” the AAIA said in its official statement. The authority emphasized that all current information released is preliminary, and findings may be adjusted as additional evidence is collected and analyzed.

    The AAIA reiterated that the core mission of any aviation accident investigation is to improve future aviation safety and prevent similar tragedies, not to assign blame or determine legal liability for the incident. In a public appeal, the authority asked any member of the public who holds photos, video footage, or other information related to the crash to reach out directly to investigators to assist with the probe.

    Consistent with the authority’s privacy policies, the AAIA will not release the identities of the 10 victims. It noted that notifying next of kin is the responsibility of local relevant authorities, and the AAIA is coordinating closely with the Ministry of Transport and other local government agencies to ensure that affected families receive all necessary support and resources during this difficult time.

  • Flamingo Air operations suspended after North Andros plane crash

    Flamingo Air operations suspended after North Andros plane crash

    A small aircraft carrying seven people crashed in the Pine Yard district close to North Andros Airport in the Bahamas on Thursday, triggering an immediate precautionary suspension of Flamingo Air’s Air Operator Certificate by national aviation authorities, as search and rescue teams continue scouring the crash site for missing passengers and crew.

    The Bahamas Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Aviation announced the regulatory action, noting the suspension was enacted in the interest of public aviation safety following two separate safety incidents involving the airline on the same day as the crash. Emergency dispatchers first received reports of the downed aircraft just after 2 p.m. local time, prompting first responders and search teams to deploy to the remote Pine Yard area immediately after the alert.

    Per the ministry’s official statement, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority has been assigned to lead a full probe into the circumstances of the crash, to identify root causes and any contributing factors that led to the accident. Director General of the Bahamas Civil Aviation Authority emphasized that the temporary operating certificate suspension is a proactive precautionary safety measure, not an immediate finding of non-compliance or fault against Flamingo Air at this early stage of the investigation.

    As of Thursday afternoon, officials have not released public details about the aircraft’s registration number, its specific operational history, or confirmed any casualties related to the crash. The ministry confirmed it is receiving real-time updates from the Civil Aviation Authority, local law enforcement, and emergency management agencies as the search operation progresses.

    “Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families who have been impacted by this incident,” the ministry said in its statement. This report reflects the latest available information as the situation remains ongoing and developing.

  • PM: No survivors in North Andros plane crash

    PM: No survivors in North Andros plane crash

    On a day meant for national celebration, the Bahamas has been plunged into mourning by a fatal plane crash that claimed 10 lives on its Independence Day. Prime Minister Philip Davis confirmed the grim outcome for all passengers and crew aboard the small aircraft that went down in North Andros, marking the second deadly aviation incident the nation has responded to in recent memory, as officials urge patience and caution while the investigation remains ongoing.

    Preliminary reports from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority (AAIA) outline that the plane, a Cessna 402 registered as C6-FLX, departed from Nassau’s Lynden Pindling International Airport shortly before 1 p.m. Friday, bound for San Andros Airport. The aircraft reported in-flight mechanical issues before crashing into dense brush while approaching the runway for landing. While one person initially survived the impact, they later died from their injuries, Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles confirmed. In a statement honoring the victims, Davis noted that the nation has been forced to grieve far too many lost lives to aviation tragedy, saying “we have mourned too many lives, we have comforted too many families and today we mourn once again.” He called on divine strength to help the country support the bereaved families and navigate the aftermath of the disaster.

    To protect the privacy of next of kin, Knowles added that the full passenger manifest will not be released to the public until every family has been personally notified by authorities. Davis emphasized that this respect for victims’ families is a core obligation, urging the public to only share official, verified information to preserve the integrity of the ongoing investigation. Multi-agency investigative teams, including AAIA investigators, Civil Aviation Authority Bahamas (CAAB) inspectors and Airport Authority personnel, have already been deployed to the crash site to piece together the cause of the disaster.

    The crash comes on the same day as a separate non-fatal incident involving the same airline, Flamingo Air, which owns the Cessna 402 involved in the North Andros tragedy. Earlier Friday morning, a second Flamingo Air flight traveling to Mayaguana experienced an in-flight emergency that forced the pilot to return to Nassau. After all passengers and crew safely evacuated the plane post-landing, the aircraft caught fire. No fatalities were reported in that incident. Minister of Energy, Utilities and Aviation Jobeth Coleby-Davis confirmed that, in the interest of public aviation safety, the ministry has issued a temporary suspension of Flamingo Air’s Air Operator Certificate, pausing all of the airline’s operations pending review. Officials stressed that the suspension is a precautionary safety measure, not a formal finding of non-compliance against the carrier.

    In an official statement, Flamingo Air confirmed the ownership of the crashed aircraft and expressed its deepest condolences to the families of the victims, adding that the company is fully cooperating with all investigating authorities to support the probe. The tragedy has cast a heavy shadow over the country’s Independence Day celebrations, with widespread shock rippling through Bahamian communities. Many residents took to social media platform Facebook to grieve missing loved ones, amid early confusion over the full passenger list.

    Opposition Leader Michael Pintard joined in offering condolences to the affected families, noting that the disaster turned a day of national joy into a moment of collective grief. “On a day when Bahamians should be celebrating together, our hearts are heavy because of the devastating news of a plane crash,” Pintard said. He committed the opposition Free National Movement to supporting cross-party efforts to improve aviation safety, including the creation of a joint parliamentary committee to review industry regulations and safety protocols. Pintard urged the public to stand in solidarity with the victims’ families and first responders, reflecting on the tragedy as a reminder of life’s fragility: “These unfortunate deaths remind us of the fragility of life and of the need to find ways to pull together when there is so much that seeks to tear us apart.”

  • Bimini blaze leaves twenty homeless

    Bimini blaze leaves twenty homeless

    On a Wednesday morning in Bimini, the Bahamas, a devastating out-of-control fire tore through multiple residential structures in Bailey Town, forcing local residents to step in as makeshift first responders – forming human bucket brigades along the shoreline and climbing onto rooftops to slow the blaze’s spread. The incident has once again brought long-simmering public anger over the island’s chronically insufficient firefighting resources to a boil.

    Local law enforcement confirmed they received the first alert of the blaze along Kings Highway shortly after 6 a.m., arriving to find a two-story mixed concrete-and-wood building, home to four separate households, completely engulfed in flames. Official updates from the Ministry of Social Services later confirmed at least five homes were damaged or destroyed in the fire, with Island Administrator Evak Arthur projecting that close to 20 local residents have been displaced by the disaster.

    Randy Rolle, Member of Parliament for Bimini and the Berry Islands, confirmed that one to two people suffered smoke inhalation and required airlifting to New Providence for medical observation. Fortunately, there have been no reports of fatalities or critical, life-threatening injuries.

    Multiple residents told reporters that only one fire truck – a unit stationed at the local airport – was available to respond to the emergency, and it arrived long after local residents had already begun battling the blaze on their own. Naria Rolle, the resident whose home the fire started in, described waking around 5 a.m. to the sound of crackling near her seven-month pregnant daughter’s bed, tracing the spark to a faulty air conditioning unit plug.

    “I turned the breaker off immediately and I grabbed the fire extinguisher, but the pin would not pull,” Ms Rolle explained. She and her high-risk pregnant daughter attempted to smother the growing flames before fleeing the property with nothing but the clothes they wore. Ms Rolle, a single parent who built the home herself at age 23 and carries no property insurance, said she is left grappling with overwhelming loss after escaping unharmed but losing every possession she owned.

    “It’s still saddening, to lose everything,” she said. “People might say, you have your life. Yeah, you have your life, but when you struggle most of your life, when you get to a place where you feel comfortable with your life and for that to just be yanked away from you, just in the blink of an eye? I’m a single parent, and I have a daughter in college. It’s just in an instant. And yes, you could rebuild, but the scars still there, the memories that you lose, it’s still there. That’s your home.” Ms Rolle added that displaced households are now in urgent need of financial support, clothing, and permanent emergency housing.

    Footage live-streamed from the fire scene captured the scale of the community-led response, showing residents hauling bucket after bucket of seawater from the shore to douse the blaze as it threatened to spread to adjacent homes, while local men climbed to nearby rooftops to beat back advancing flames. One resident questioned during the stream whether much of the damage could have been avoided if properly functioning, dedicated firefighting equipment had been available immediately.

    “I don’t know how many signs we need to get a working fire truck in Bimini, Bahamas, but the signs are everywhere,” the resident said. “Without a fire truck, it’s very hard to stop this raging fire. This is hard for Bimini.”

    Police confirmed the fire was eventually brought under control entirely through volunteer efforts, though the affected structures suffered extensive irreparable damage. Bahamas Power and Light reported that power was cut to the Bailey Town and Canton Line areas after the blaze damaged low-voltage circuits and power lines, though full service has since been restored.

    Wednesday’s fire is not an isolated incident: it echoes a similar devastating blaze in March 2023 that destroyed multiple structures and left 11 Bimini families homeless. On that occasion, residents also reported having to fight the fire with buckets and hoses, and formally appealed to the national government to station a dedicated working fire truck on the island.

    Cecil Dames, one of the local residents who helped fight Wednesday’s blaze, argued that Bimini needs a more practical, context-appropriate solution than a single conventional fire truck, which is difficult to maintain in the island’s harsh tropical coastal environment. “We need action as in we need some kind of pumps and hoses,” Dames explained. “He said strategically placed pumps and hoses capable of drawing seawater would allow residents to respond faster when fires break out. While residents ultimately contained the fire themselves, Dames noted that this is not an acceptable outcome in 2026.

    “The airport fire truck eventually arrived and helped, but came late,” he said. “It did help, but it ran out of water and had to leave and come back.”

    Alexia Duncombe, whose family members joined the firefighting effort, said the island remains trapped in the same dangerous gap in emergency services that it faced after the 2023 blaze, with no meaningful action taken to address the crisis in the intervening years.

    In response to the disaster, Attorney General and acting National Security Minister Wayne Munroe acknowledged that small islands like Bimini do need access to pumps capable of drawing and distributing saltwater for fire suppression. He noted that the national government has plans to acquire 20 new fire trucks, but manufacturing these vehicles can take between 12 and 18 months. Munroe also emphasized the importance of household fire preparedness, pointing to Ms Rolle’s non-functional fire extinguisher as a key example: “If she could have gotten it to work, the fire would not have spread and would have been put out,” he said, adding that residents must ensure all household fire safety equipment is in working order.

    Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis released a statement expressing his deepest sympathy for all households affected by the blaze, and confirmed he has directed all available government resources to be mobilized to support displaced residents. The Ministry of Social Services has already deployed an on-the-ground team to deliver immediate emergency aid, including temporary shelter, food vouchers, mental health counselling, clothing, and other essential support services. Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper and Social Services Minister Barbara Cartwright have also travelled to Bimini to conduct on-site damage assessments, meet with affected residents, and coordinate ongoing relief efforts.

  • Father says Diamond would want him to forgive car crash driver

    Father says Diamond would want him to forgive car crash driver

    On June 28, a devastating car crash on Shirley Street in Nassau left five teenagers dead and shocked the entire Bahamas nation. It was the deadliest road accident the country has seen in more than 20 years, and for the grieving families left behind, the weeks following the tragedy have been marked by raw pain, quiet reflection, and an extraordinary act of grace.

    Damian Stubbs, the 51-year-old father of 17-year-old victim Diamond Stubbs, has opened up about his journey from blinding rage to forgiveness, revealing he now holds no ill will toward 19-year-old Marcus Thacker Jr., the driver charged with five counts of vehicular manslaughter in connection with the crash.

    In the immediate aftermath of the collision, when the 2006 Mazda sedan carrying eight young people crashed into a tree at the Shirley Street and Church Street intersection, Stubbs joined other grieving relatives in calling for full accountability for the deaths of the five teens. But as weeks passed and the initial shock of his loss softened into sustained grief, Stubbs said his perspective shifted.

    “I was really angry at first, that anger consumed me in those first terrible days,” Stubbs shared in an interview. “But as time goes by, I’m starting to now feel sorry for him. It could have been my daughter behind the wheel. All of those kids were just together, no matter where they were coming from or where they were going.”

    Stubbs added that his daughter, if she had survived the crash, would have been the first to urge forgiveness for Thacker. “If my daughter had lived after all of this, she would still say, ‘Daddy, we have to forgive Marcus.’ If I got the chance to speak to him face to face, I would tell him straight out that I forgive him. I would still have questions I need to ask, about what happened that day, but the anger is gone.”

    Along with Diamond Stubbs, the crash claimed the lives of 17-year-old Stania Webb, 19-year-old Keno Gordon Jr., 18-year-old Bertrica Brown, and 19-year-old Evalena Johnson. Two other passengers, Bianca Mathurin and 21-year-old Shawn Thurston, remain in hospital recovering from serious injuries sustained in the collision.

    The tragedy is deeply interwoven with the close-knit community bonds of the group: all five victims and Thacker grew up together on Cat Island, a quiet outer island of the Bahamas, with connections that crossed family lines. Stubbs explained that Thacker’s father was known to his family as “uncle” to Diamond, and the teen girls in the group saw Thacker as an older brother. Stubbs added that he cannot sustain anger toward Thacker, even as he still grapples with unanswerable questions about whether speeding contributed to the crash.

    Critics have questioned why eight passengers crammed into a single sedan for the trip, but Stubbs pushed back against that criticism, noting the tight bonds between the young people meant they would never agree to split into separate vehicles. “We train our children not to leave each other behind,” he said. “That’s how these kids were raised, that’s how they lived.”

    As families make final arrangements to lay their loved ones to rest, Stania Webb’s father Stanley Webb has launched work to build a shared mausoleum for Stania and Diamond, who were lifelong best friends, so they can be buried side by side on Cat Island. Local volunteers and Webb’s two older sons have pitched in to complete the work, while Stubbs has remained in New Providence to coordinate logistical details for the joint funeral.

    Stubbs said the outpouring of community support for the grieving families has been overwhelming, a small light in the darkest period of his life. “The hardest part of this whole thing has been sitting in the funeral home, trying to pick out a casket, listening to people talk about what will look good for our kids,” he said. “I still can’t bring myself to talk about dressing my daughter for burial. That’s too much.”

    Stubbs’ wife Natalie has been completely shattered by the loss of her daughter, he said, withdrawing from friends and family and turning off her phone in the days after the crash, though she has begun to show small signs of emotional progress in recent days. The couple have three other children: 23-year-old Damian Jr., 16-year-old Dominic, and 11-year-old Trinity, whom Stubbs said has been the glue holding the fractured family together through their grief.

    For Stubbs, Diamond was far more than just a daughter: she was a close confidant who stood by him through hard times, and the natural peacekeeper who kept their family connected. Just two weeks before the crash, Diamond graduated from Old Bight High School as valedictorian and head girl, a high-achieving student who had already earned five college scholarships and planned to attend Langston University in Oklahoma to study criminal justice.

    Teachers and family members remember Diamond as an intelligent, generous young woman who was active in her church, school and local community, always looking for ways to help people around her. One of Stubbs’ most cherished final memories of his daughter is a video of her singing “Goodness of God” to him during a Father’s Day service at their church just weeks before the crash.

    “I didn’t know that was going to be the last song,” Stubbs said quietly.

  • ‘I just wept, I really felt the pain’, says mother

    ‘I just wept, I really felt the pain’, says mother

    For Lovan Miller-Christie, a resident of Andros, the pain of unspeakable loss never truly fades. Nearly two years ago, a single car accident claimed the lives of all three of her sons, and the recent deadly collision on Shirley Street that left five teenagers dead has ripped open the still-raw grief she carries every day.

    The June 28 crash, which occurred when eight people were crammed into a single passenger vehicle, shook The Bahamas to its core. Dead at the scene were Bertrica Brown, 18, Diamond Stubbs, 17, Stania Webb, 19, Evalena Johnson, 19, and 19-year-old Keno Gordon Jr. Two other survivors, 21-year-olds Bianca Mathurin and Shawn Thurston, remain hospitalized as they work to recover from their injuries. For Miller-Christie, news of the dead teens immediately transported her back to September 2, 2024, the day her own world collapsed. That morning, her three sons — 24-year-old Philip McCarron Christie, 23-year-old Philip D’Caprio Christie, and 20-year-old D’Angelo Christie — were killed in a traffic accident in New Providence, shortly after the family had relocated from their quiet Andros hometown to the island to let the young men chase better opportunities.

    “I cried for those children,” Miller-Christie shared in an interview with Tribune media this week. “They just graduated, they were intelligent, and one was getting ready to go to college. I was just looking at their story and I thought, ‘oh my God.’ I just wept, I really felt the pain.” In the wake of the Shirley Street crash, hundreds of messages flooded Miller-Christie’s phone from people across the country who understood immediately that the new tragedy would awaken her deepest trauma. This interview marks the first time Miller-Christie has spoken publicly about her continued grief since her sons’ deaths, when the devastating loss captured national attention and broke hearts across The Bahamas.

    Today, Miller-Christie says she holds profound empathy for the families now navigating the same unthinkable pain she lives with every day. Though coping with the loss of her three boys remains a daily struggle, she says her religious faith has been the only thing that has helped her keep going. “I’m still managing,” she said.

    While she hopes to eventually connect with the grieving families to offer her support, Miller-Christie understands that fresh grief requires space. She knows from personal experience that in the immediate aftermath of loss, well-meaning comfort often falls on deaf ears. “I know when I lost my sons, people were reaching out to me, but I wasn’t hearing them, you know,” she explained. “They were talking to me, but I was in another space. I think that when people go through loss, you can send them your condolences and tell them you care, but you have to give them time to reconcile with that loss and that pain.”

    Drawing from her own long journey through grief, Miller-Christie is now calling for systemic change to support other bereaved people across the nation. She says The Bahamas lacks a dedicated organization where people navigating the sudden loss of loved ones can access moral encouragement, professional counseling, and personalized guidance from others who have survived similar tragedies. “We could come together, share and explain our pain,” she said. “And share what it is that we use to help us manage our grief, pain, and loss, and to come out of bed with sanity.”

  • Texas boy survives shark bite off Exuma, calls his older brother a hero

    Texas boy survives shark bite off Exuma, calls his older brother a hero

    A devastating vacation encounter off the coast of the Bahamas has turned into a story of extraordinary sibling courage, after 12-year-old Parker Roll, a Texas native, publicly credited his older brother Jack with saving his life following a sudden shark attack in late June. The incident unfolded while the Roll family was visiting Staniel Cay, Exuma, as part of a sightseeing tour of the Exuma Cays, when the unprovoked attack caught both boys completely off guard.

    Speaking in an exclusive interview with ABC’s *Good Morning America*, Parker reflected on the surreal moments after the shark locked onto his body. “I didn’t really feel it at first because there’s just so much adrenaline rushing through your body,” he recalled. “But I remember looking down, and I just saw this head — and that head was well over a foot wide.”

    Sixteen-year-old Jack, who was in the water nearby, initially mistook the dark shape of the shark for an ordinary submerged rock. It was only when he heard a shattering, “ear-piercing scream” from his younger brother that he immediately grasped the gravity of the emergency. Without hesitation, Jack sprang into action to contain the life-threatening bleeding. “I immediately took off my swimsuit because I was like, oh, we have to stop that bleeding,” Jack explained of his quick thinking. “I ran over there, wrapped it tight around his leg, and then picked him up and started carrying him over to the beach as fast as I could.”

    The pair’s older brother Adam quickly rushed to alert the tour boat’s crew, screaming at the top of his lungs to call for a first aid kit. The on-site crew helped carry the injured 12-year-old back to the vessel, which then had to make a grueling 60-mile open-water trip to reach the main Exuma shore. Complicating the emergency, the boat had no cell service and no working radio contact to call for emergency support mid-journey, leaving Parker to endure extreme agony the entire way. “I’ve never felt pain like that,” Parker said. “You’ve got salt water washing over huge wounds, and there’s tons of deep teeth marks all over my leg.”

    Once the boat docked, an ambulance was waiting to transport Parker to a local hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery, received dozens of stitches, and was treated for a severe injury to one of his toes. Remarkably, medical teams were able to save his leg, an outcome Parker calls nothing short of a miracle. “I definitely consider myself very lucky — that shark could’ve easily taken my leg off if things had gone even a little differently,” he said.

    The Roll family’s parents shared that every person on board the tour boat held onto hope and prayed throughout the nerve-wracking journey back to shore, as they had no way of knowing how the traumatic ordeal would end. In a positive update, doctors have told the family they are optimistic Parker will make a complete recovery with time and physical therapy.

    At the time of the *Good Morning America* interview, Parker said he can already “kind of” walk short distances, though movement still causes significant discomfort. He added that he is already looking forward to getting back to one of his favorite activities: riding his dirt bike. For Parker, there is no question who is responsible for him being alive today. “I definitely consider [Jack] as my hero,” he said. “He stopped the bleeding and saved my life.”

  • Stania and Diamond side by side forever

    Stania and Diamond side by side forever

    Five teenagers lost their lives and two others were injured in a devastating high-profile traffic collision on Shirley Street, The Bahamas, last month – the deadliest road accident the nation has seen in at least two decades. Among the victims were 19-year-old Stania Webb and 17-year-old Diamond Stubbs, two lifelong best friends whose bond stretched from childhood on Cat Island through Stania’s college years. Now, Stania’s grieving father, Stanley Webb, is honoring their unbreakable connection by building matching adjacent mausoleums for the pair in a Cat Island cemetery, with support from his family and a groundswell of local volunteers.

    Stania and Diamond grew up steps away from each other on Cat Island, and their friendship never wavered even after Stania graduated high school and moved away for college. Every time Stania returned home, she would spend one to two weeks staying with Diamond, relaxing and enjoying their shared time together. When the two young women died alongside three other teenagers in the June 28 crash, Stanley knew they could not be separated in death.

    The 19-year-old driver of the vehicle involved, Marcus Thacker Jr, faces five counts of vehicular manslaughter in connection with the crash. The other victims killed were 19-year-old Keno Gordon Jr, 18-year-old Bertrica Brown, and 19-year-old Evalena Johnson. Two additional crash survivors – 21-year-old Shawn Thurston and Bianca Mathurin – remain hospitalized recovering from their injuries.

    Unlike traditional underground burials, which Stanley said he fears could become hard to locate or access decades in the future, the above-ground mausoleums will give him a dedicated space to visit his daughter and his goddaughter Diamond. “I wanted just to put something there in the cemetery where I could come back,” he explained. “You know, sit down or drop a rose and be able to know exactly where she is on her birthday or some days I just might want to come and say hello.” After reworking his original design, Stanley now plans to build the two mausoleums opposite one another, with a small flower garden filling the space between them.

    The construction effort has been a community-led labor of love. Stanley’s two oldest sons, 25-year-old Teran and 21-year-old Ashstan, have worked alongside their father every step of the way, and hundreds of local residents have stepped up to volunteer their time, bringing food and water for the workers and helping with hands-on tasks like mixing cement. Stanley, who still has four surviving sons, said the outpouring of support has helped him carry on through his profound grief.

    The pair will be laid to rest in the Cat Island mausoleums on July 25, with their bodies transported to the island the day prior. A public memorial service will be held for the two teens in New Providence on July 16 for anyone unable to travel to Cat Island for the burial. That same day, Bertrica Brown’s family will host a separate memorial for her in New Providence before moving her body to Abaco for her final burial.

    In the wake of the tragedy, Stanley has issued a public warning to Nassau residents: reports of people soliciting cash donations on the street in his family’s name are not authorized. “We want the public at large to know that we didn’t authorise anybody to go on our behalf and ask for anything,” he stressed, adding that all volunteer support the project has received has been freely given out of community care, and he is deeply grateful to every person who has stepped forward to help.

    Separately, Attorney General Wayne Munroe addressed the case with reporters this week, noting that convictions for dangerous driving that causes multiple deaths typically result in custodial sentences in The Bahamas. He cited a past case from Grand Bahama, where a young driver who sped off the road and killed three passengers was sentenced to 18 months in prison, a ruling that was later upheld by the Court of Appeal.