An elderly man whose decomposed body was found in an abandoned house on Wednesday will be missed by residents in his hometown of Bathsheba, St Joseph.
The incident has also left at least one resident wondering whether an ongoing shutdown due to COVID-19 may have left neighbours unaware of challenges that he may have encountered.
Police revealed the discovery was made around 7:30 a.m at the old Powell Spring Hotel opposite the Soup Bowl. No foul play is suspected.
Those living around the area identified the dead man as Stephen Hackett who was more commonly known as Tucky.
One resident described him as a “character”, who was originally from Joes River, but practically lived at the abandoned house and survived on handouts from those in the area.
“He would be hungry and if he asked for anything, people would give him. So now that things are shut down in Bathsheba and there’s nothing going on, there are no picnickers, no restaurants open or shops, he wouldn’t have been able to get his bread. Everybody was shut down and he was just there,” said the resident.
“When I heard the announcement this morning the first thing that came to my mind is that perhaps he was not getting any nourishment and he just succumbed to natural causes. I don’t think anyone would do anything bad to him, because he wasn’t a wicked person or anything,” the resident added.
The Bathsheba neighbour recalled that Tucky would make people laugh and suspected that when life in the quaint rural village re-opened, he would be missed dearly.
“He used to come out to every funeral don’t care who dead. He used to come out well dressed. I don’t know where he had his clothes stashed but he used to come out. He was a man that you would get a good laugh from. He had a funny walk that I wish I had on tape. I will definitely miss seeing him rolling through the streets,” the resident said.
When Barbados TODAY visited Joes River, St Joseph where Hackett was born and raised, his brother, who declined to give his name, revealed that the deceased was one of seven siblings. He offered no further comment.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb
