The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE mother of a 17-year-old boy murdered just weeks before Christmas says she is bracing for what she expects will be the darkest holiday season of her life, telling The Tribune: “I don’t even know if I’m going to make it.”

Shanique Griffiths spoke yesterday of the crushing grief left by the killing of her only son, Javaughn Deveaux, whose body was discovered on a dirt road off Gladstone Road on December 8 with injuries to his head and upper body.

Only weeks earlier, Ms Griffiths said, she and her son had been planning Christmas photos — small moments of joy now rendered unbearable by his sudden death.

“I wanted to do something to make him happy,” she said, adding that Javaughn had also planned to surprise her by introducing his girlfriend, something she only learned after he was gone.

Instead, she said, the approach of Christmas has barely registered. The mother of three — who also has daughters aged four and ten — said she has abandoned all plans for the holiday.

“I’m not even checking to say go do my hair, go do my nails, go buy my clothes or plan to go do nothing for Christmas,” she said. “I don't want nobody by me for Christmas. I mean, other relatives could take out my kids, but I don't think I'm able to, like participate.”

Ms Griffiths said she shared an exceptionally close bond with her son, who was due to graduate from CI Gibson next year and hoped to become a police officer. She described him as gentle and supportive, saying he was often the one who calmed her during moments of stress.

“If I’m angry about something, if I upset about something, just like how he die now, if he could’ve whisper and say ‘Mummy, don't worry’ with everything that happen to him, he would’ve said that,” she said, recalling that he hated seeing her sad.

She said those words of reassurance were among the last she remembers from him, recalling a recent conversation while she was hospitalised, when he told her she would be fine.

“It’s hurt me so much,” she said. “I don't know how to get over that. Because I lose a sister before I lose my granddaddy, but it's so close to me like he’s my child and he just gone like that.”

The pain, she said, lingers in the smallest details. Javaughn’s food is still in the fridge, untouched, left there from the last meal she cooked while waiting for him to come home.

She said she cannot bring herself to throw it away.

“This the worst feeling ever,” she said.

Deveaux’s killing pushed the country’s murder count to 80 for the year, according to The Tribune’s records. Police have since charged a 15-year-old boy in connection with his death.