LITTLE DID EQUILLA Reynolds know that when her boyfriend Laron Randolph left Barbados a year ago, aboard a boat named after their eight-month-old daughter Zoela, it would be the last time she would see him.Randolph, 24, of Chancery Lane, St Michael, left on what was supposed to be a routine fishing trip alongside Ricardo “Scanty” Jones, 33, of Thornbury Hill, Christ Church, and Christopher “Lexus” Harris, 34, of Maynards Tenantry, Kingsland, Christ Church. The trio left Fitts Village, St James, about 1 p.m on Thursday, July 2, 2009, never to be heard from again.Reynolds, co-owner of the Zoela, is no stranger to the NATION, having sought its help more than once. The first published story quoted her as saying she began to worry when there was no word from Randolph by the following Saturday.Search partyShe said Randolph usually stayed out for a maximum of three days, and so she sought the assistance of the Barbados Coast Guard when up to the Tuesday he still had not come home.“The Coast Guard said they sent out a search party and notified other coastguards in the region, but came up empty.“While I was there the Tuesday, the Barbados Coast Guard received a radio [call] from Laron stating that he and the others were still alive, but they were running out of foodstuff. That was it; no coordinates; nothing,” Reynolds said then.She had said her boyfriend, a fisherman for sometime, had only recently bought his own boat; and that after hearing nothing from the men, she had made continual calls to Randolph’s cellphone only to be greeted with a busy signal.Two weeks later, Reynolds was again telling the NATION about the lack of progress in finding her boyfriend.“I visited the Coast Guard again last week and all they told me is that there has been no word on them yet. They say they have searched; but I am still holding out hope that they are out there,” she had said.The couple had been together for only three years, and Reynolds had said it would be hard for their daughter.“Every day I wonder what I’m going to tell my daughter if he turns up dead. He used to call me while he was at sea . . . . Up to today when I called there was just a busy signal. I just want somebody to give me some kind of news,” she had reported.All Reynolds has had left is rumour. She said word on the street was that the Vincentian police had intercepted a boat at sea recently, and she was still trying to confirm whether or not it wasthe Zoela.Reynolds’ daughter will soon be two, and the day mum says she dreads is fast approaching – when she must tell Zoela her daddy is never coming back home.
THIS SERIES highlights some of the missing person cases across the island. If you want a case highlighted, please call 430-5478/430-5565 or 430-5485.
