Death of elderly neighbour shocks Colleton residents

A report from the Barbados Police Service (BPS) said that the man’s lifeless body was found slumped in a chair with what appeared to be a wound to his head sometime around noon on Saturday.

During an interview with Barbados TODAY neighbours identified the man as Lloyd Howell, 79. Police are yet to publicly release his identity.

His neighbour of about a decade, Kim Bradshaw, appeared visibly shaken up as she recounted the harrowing story of finding the body. She said she was expecting that he may have slipped and fallen or probably had a heart attack but never in her wildest dreams would she have envisioned the circumstances in which she found him.

“When I saw him, I saw something in his lap and I thought it was a phone but when I went closer I saw it was a firearm in his hand and a wound in his head … I just left and came back over here and made the call to the police,” she recounted.

Bradshaw’s visit to Howell’s home came after he didn’t answer his door when her son visited. She explained that the families were pretty close and her mother baked bread and sent a loaf over for Howell, but when there was no answer at the door, they tried to reach him repeatedly via his landline.

“She wasn’t feeling good about not hearing him and asked me to check. Sometimes I’ve gone in the past and he would be on the outside in the back and didn’t hear the phone or the person calling for him, but when I approached, I noticed things that had me alarmed. Like the [house] windows were closed and the positioning of the car, because I know how he parks the car in the day as opposed to how it was left in the night,” Bradshaw said.

Bradshaw said Howell, a returning national from the United Kingdom, lived alone and had no known relatives on the island. His wife reportedly passed away some four years ago after a battle with dementia. Howell was described as a good, helpful and friendly neighbour who would share any of the produce that he reaped from his kitchen garden with other neighbours.

Describing their friendship as amicable, Bradshaw noted that, barring some ailments associated with age like hypertension and diabetes, she was unaware of any serious challenges he may have had.

“He did have a wound on his leg that he was complaining for. I didn’t realise the extent of it til I saw the bandages when I went there the morning … I don’t know if anything was plaguing him but my mum would talk to him frequently on the phone, plus she saw him up to Thursday but I don’t think anybody who heard of this had any kind of knowledge it was coming,” she stressed.

“If it was a case of him planning this, he would have known he would be found and found at least the next day because he brought some coconut for her on Thursday and brought it for her to bake. He knows when she bakes she sends and if she sends and we don’t hear him it’s going to make us check.”

There were no reports of hearing any gunshots between Friday evening when Howell was last seen, and Saturday afternoon when he was found. And Bradshaw reiterated the need for neighbours to be neighbourly.

“You can probably be more vigilant about, especially elderly or people who live alone, probably pay more attention to their habits, making sure you see them every once in a while and call them. It is a puzzle that it occurred and no signs were picked up by anyone that saw him. I can’t say that anyone would have done better or do better in the future but probably being more involved because it could have been worse. If we didn’t have that kind of relationship or know of his patterns it could have taken days before anyone would have found him,” Bradshaw added as she noted that Howell would be missed.

The BPS said that investigations into the death are ongoing. (KC)