An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Al­though rel­a­tives of the woman killed in a hit-and-run ac­ci­dent near the NP Fly­over on Wednes­day, are an­gry that the dri­ver nev­er stopped to ren­der as­sis­tance, they urged those re­spon­si­ble to spare a thought for Paige John’s chil­dren, who have now been or­phaned.

John, 35, of Pash­ley Street, Laven­tille, was found ly­ing in a grassy area off the north­ern side of the Beetham High­way around 6 am on De­cem­ber 27.

The moth­er of two, who was em­ployed at NP as a clean­er, was re­port­ed­ly on her way to work at the time.

Passers­by who stum­bled up­on John’s body con­tact­ed the Emer­gency Health Ser­vices, but at­ten­dants were un­able to re­vive her.

The Dis­trict Med­ical Of­fi­cer vis­it­ed the scene and or­dered John’s body re­moved to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James, for an au­top­sy, af­ter in­juries were ob­served on the left side of John’s face.

Her per­son­al ef­fects, which were found strewn on the ground near­by, were col­lect­ed by of­fi­cers.

Al­though in­ves­ti­ga­tors re­trieved a li­cense plate near the spot where John’s body was found, of­fi­cers have yet to con­firm if it was in any way con­nect­ed to John’s ac­ci­dent or if it was from a pre­vi­ous ac­ci­dent.

John’s rel­a­tives, who de­clined to pro­vide their names yes­ter­day, de­scribed her as a com­mit­ted and hard-work­ing moth­er who would do any­thing for her chil­dren.

A moth­er of two young chil­dren, John had promised to vis­it them around 4 pm on the day she died to drop off their Christ­mas presents.

Rel­a­tives said John’s chil­dren had been spend­ing the Christ­mas hol­i­days with her fa­ther, as she had vol­un­teered to work ex­tra hours to earn more mon­ey.

Re­veal­ing that the chil­dren were aware some­thing had hap­pened to their moth­er, one rel­a­tive said they con­tin­ued to ask for John.

An­oth­er said, “They haven’t re­al­ly un­der­stood what hap­pened yet.”

Con­firm­ing John’s chil­dren had been left with­out any par­ents as their fa­ther and now John were both de­ceased, one rel­a­tive said the dri­ver could have helped her.

The woman, who shook her head in dis­be­lief at the in­ci­dent, added, “Is a life you take. I want jus­tice.”

The rel­a­tives said they were cur­rent­ly un­der­go­ing dif­fer­ent phas­es of grief as they strug­gled to come to terms with John’s death and the man­ner in which her life end­ed.

—An­na-Lisa Paul