The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net 

FOUR years after her mother and brother died during Hurricane Dorian, Sitha Silien says she just wants to find peace and move on with her life – a dream that would only be made possible after she obtains her loved ones’ death certificates.

“Until now, I haven’t gotten any death certificate from my brother and my mom,” the 31-year-old Abaco resident told The Tribune. “That killing me.”

But, like many others, Silien would have to wait until the Coroner’s Court holds another inquest that would see more people who went missing after the storm declared dead.

Silien claimed that her mother, Elvitha Charles, died when a piece of plywood struck her head as winds intensified and water surged inland.

Her brother, Siverlien Silien, also suffered a cruel death during the storm when the roof of a church he went to collapsed on him and several other people.

 To this day, the family has yet to find their bodies, leaving Silien and her father’s lives in limbo.

 She said DNA swabs were taken from her, but no match was found with bodies located after the storm.

 And because they are unable to prove her mother and brother’s death, Silien said she is unable to apply for a Bahamian passport, while her father is unable to remarry.

 “The citizenship what I did put in for and yes I know I wait long but when mummy dead that’s when I really wanted to put it because I need my passport but the people say because she dead, I need a death certificate,” she said. “That killing me because I born here and I cannot get my document because I need my mother’s death certificate and I have everything.”

 The 31-year-old, who works in the construction field, said she needs her documents to work.

 “I can’t go to work there because I don’t have the document so I’m working part-time.”

 She said her father who now lives in Haiti also wants to move forward with his life.

 “My daddy ready to get married again but he can’t get married again because they said he need a death certificate to clarify that he wife died. Whew! It been tough,” Silien added.

 Hurricane Dorian struck The Bahamas on September 1, 2019 as a Category Five storm, killing more than 70 people in Abaco and Grand Bahama.

 However, many more are believed to be missing.

 In 2021, the Coroner’s Court held an inquest into the presumed deaths of people reported missing after Hurricane Dorian.

 At the end of that inquest, then-Coroner Jeanine Weech-Gomez declared dead 22 people who were reported missing after the deadly storm.

 A copy of the list showing the names of the people declared dead by the Coroner’s Court – which was seen by The Tribune - does not include the names of Silien’s mother and brother.

 A Coroner’s Court official, who spoke to this newspaper on the condition of anonymity, explained that Silien’s relatives were likely not on the list because she nor other family members testified during the 2021 inquest.

 The official said only those who testify about the circumstances surrounding the presumed death of their family member can begin the process of getting their death certificate after the courts would’ve declare them dead.

 “There has to be an inquest,” the official said. “Only half of family members who reported their loved ones as missing, the half that we found – those are the persons who we went through trial with.”

 The official said undocumented people with missing loved ones need not fear deportation when visiting the Coroner’s Court, believing this to be a factor why many have not yet testified.

 “It’s still open. If these people start to come forward now, the new coroner would now have to go and continue the second part of the case, but bear in mind that the trial will have to start all over again.”

 However, when The Tribune spoke to Silien, she did not appear to be aware of this process.

 She only said that efforts to retrieve her family member’s death certificates have been tiring and costly.

 “Four months, I been to Nassau and these people running me round and round and in March, I been to Nassau again and they give me another story and I haven’t got no death certificate yet,” the Abaco resident said.

“I went to the (registry) to get the death certificate and they sent me to the Coroner’s Court. When I was at the Coroner’s Court, they sent me to CDU and, yes, I did speak to the lady from CDU because she did been to Abaco to see me, and she had the list there.”

“The information what I gave a copy of her passport, my brother’s birth certificate, they have their picture. They have them on the list, but these people would not give their death certificate.”