The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

BEST friends Stania Webb and Diamond Stubbs will be interred side by side in a Cat Island cemetery, where Stania’s father Stanley is building mausoleums for each girl with the aid of his two elder sons and a small army of locals who have volunteered their help.

Mr Webb said he wanted a place where he could sit with the girls – Diamond was his goddaughter – leave a rose and ‘come say hello.’

He said he could not bear the thought of the young women, who grew up as best friends and died together in last month’s deadly Shirley Street crash, being buried underground in graves that might become difficult to locate over time.

“I wanted just to put something there in the cemetery where I could come back,” he said. “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.”

Stania, 19, and Diamond, 17, were among five teenagers killed on June 28th in the deadliest traffic accident in The Bahamas in at least 20 years

The crash also killed Keno Gordon Jr, 19; Bertrica Brown, 18; and Evalena Johnson, 19; Bianca Mathurin and Shawn Thurston, 21, remain in hospital recovering from their injuries.

Marcus Thacker Jr, the 19-year-old driver, has been charged with five counts of vehicular manslaughter.

Mr Webb said his daughter and Diamond grew up as best friends on Cat Island. Although Stania graduated from high school a year or two before Diamond, their friendship endured.

“Every time she comes back from college, she would come and go by Diamond and spend a week or two with her. They would just chill and enjoy each other company,” he said.

“I guess the same token, they died together, so you want to bury them side by side. So, I'm building two mausoleums next to each other.”

Mr Webb said he woke up yesterday with a new design for the mausoleums after initially envisioning something different. The layout will place one mausoleum on the left and the other on the right, with a flower garden between them.

Although he is grieving his daughter’s death, Mr Webb said his four surviving sons have helped him press ahead with the work. His older sons, Teran, 25, and Ashstan, 21, have been helping him build the burial site.

He said the wider community has also rallied around the family.

“The community at large is actually reaching out, bringing drinks, bringing food, coming along and mixing cement,” he said. “Everybody is just jumping on board.”

Stania and Diamond are expected to be buried on July 25. Their bodies will be flown to Cat Island the day before the funeral.

A memorial service will be held in New Providence on July 16 for those unable to attend the Cat Island burial.

Mr Webb said he understands that Bertrica’s family will also hold a funeral service for her in New Providence that day before her body is transported to Abaco.

Mr Webb said there were reports circulating in Nassau that people were asking for money on the streets to help support the family. He stressed this was nothing to do with him and he had asked for nothing. “We want the public at large to know that we didn’t authorise anybody to go on our behalf and ask for anything.”

He said the volunteers who had come to help in Cat Island had done so out of the kindness of their hearts and he wanted to thank each and every one of them.

Attorney General Wayne Munroe told reporters yesterday that prison sentences are typically imposed when multiple people die as a result of dangerous driving. He cited a Grand Bahama case in which a young man who was speeding drove off the road and killed three people in the vehicle. The man was sentenced to 18 months in prison, a decision upheld by the Court of Appeal.