The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

SOME grieving families of victims killed in the Independence Day plane crash have been told they may wait up to eight weeks for DNA results before they can identify and bury their loved ones, deepening their anguish and renewing calls for The Bahamas to establish its own national forensic laboratory.

Relatives submitted DNA samples last week after several victims reportedly could not be identified because their bodies were severely burned in the July 10 crash near San Andros Airport.

Police told some families the samples would be sent to a laboratory in the United States and that efforts would be made to expedite the process.

Lavonia Burrows, whose brother Rashad Storr was among the 10 people killed, said her family was told results could take six to eight weeks. The family of 16-year-old Nicholas Oliver Jr said they were told to expect a wait of four to six weeks after spending hours at the morgue to submit DNA samples. Police could not confirm yesterday how many bodies remained unidentified.

Ms Burrows said her family cannot begin to heal or make final burial arrangements until her brother’s remains are identified and released.

She said the prolonged uncertainty repeatedly reopens the emotional wounds of the crash.

“After a while,” she said, “you start to level off, and then here comes a call that says, ‘We just wanted to let you know that so and so is released, or blah blah blah.’ but then that's when that wound opens up again, and you're like, "Oh my God! It's almost like you're going through the same process over again, it hurts.”

The family plans to hold a memorial service to accommodate relatives travelling from abroad, but cannot proceed with Storr’s burial until his body is formally identified.

Ms Burrows said the tragedy has exposed the urgent need for a national forensic laboratory capable of conducting DNA testing in The Bahamas rather than forcing authorities and families to depend on overseas facilities.

Advocates have long called for such a laboratory, which could provide DNA testing, pathology, drug analysis, firearms examinations and other forensic services.

Government officials have previously acknowledged that establishing the facility would be costly, but have maintained that the delays involved are linked to technical requirements rather than money alone.

“In the times that we are living in, it is so important that we have these things in place,” Ms Burrows said. “It will definitely help the nation, because we all are gonna go through this someday, one day and so having a lab here is so important, and so I am praying for the day that you know we will get our priorities together so that we can make sure that we help families.”

Storr, 35, was a member of the well-known Da Pond Band and worked as a mechanic at Western Air.

He and bandmates Giovanni McKenzie, Mateo Winder, Toniquea Gilot and Tra’vis Johnson boarded the Flamingo Air flight to North Andros to perform at a regatta.

The trip was expected to last less than 20 minutes, but the aircraft crashed near San Andros Airport, killing everyone on board.

Melvin Henfield, known as DJ Fresh International; Andros natives Quintin Myers and Macaro Rolle; pilot Franklyn Cambridge; and Oliver Jr also died.

Ms Burrows said her brother was far more than a guitarist and mechanic. She described him as a devoted family man and a source of strength for her and their mother.

She said Storr treated his nieces and nephews as his own children and spent the day before the crash with them.

“I was so shocked,” she said, “because he spent that whole day with them and I shouted out and I said, "Boy, you is the uncle of the year. He even taught my son Ledre. He taught him how to go in the car, how to change the tyre, how to change the brakes, how to start beating the drum. He was a family man.”

For the families still waiting, the absence of identified remains has prevented the final rituals that normally follow a death and left them suspended between memorial and burial.

“There is still no closure until we make sure that we have his remains, and then you know after even after we do the memorial, and once we get his remains, we will come together as a family, you know, pray and and bless the body and do what needs to be done at the end,” Ms Burrows said.