Grandma regrets child, 15-year-old Sanique Leachman, not staying with her, as she wanted ...while St Andrew community comes to terms with loss of father, daughter

BY KIMBERLEY HIBBERT Senior staff reporter hibbertk@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, October 25, 2020 

MONDAY October 19, 2020 — National Heroes' Day — will remain etched in the memory of Christine Bentley.

She is the maternal grandmother of 15-year-old Sanique Leachman, whose body was found yesterday morning, buried under mud and debris following a land slippage in Shooters Hill, St Andrew, on Friday.

Sanique's father, 42-year-old landscaper Romeo Leachman, also perished in the mudslide. His body was found buried in rubble on Friday.

15-year-old Sanique Leachman, whose
 body was found yesterday morning

Bentley told the Jamaica Observer that when young Leachman visited her last Monday she wanted to stay but her father insisted that she
should return home.

Community members of
 Shooters Hill, St. Andrew

“Mi just wish when she co
me home Monday mi hold on pon her. She never waa leave and say, 'Please mek mi stay'. But her father called and said, 'No, come home'. When she reach up she call and say, 'Grandma mi love yuh' and mi say, 'Mi love yuh too, Sanique'. Mi wish mi could turn back,” Bentley moaned yesterday. 

But, according to Shooters Hill residents, on Friday around 8:00 am, a land slippage claimed the lives of the father, who had resided at the location for over 20 years, and his daughter, his only child for whom he has been the primary caregiver since she was a toddler. more