Tonight, a family is outraged and wants answers as to why a family friend, who was once a member of their family, would douse their son with kerosene, set him on fire, and then lock him inside his home to die.
Unexplainably, that same friend would later rescue him.
The prognosis for the victim, Fidel Vernon, 23, is not good. He sustained third degree burns to his back, head and neck area, said doctors.
He is now comatose. But before slipping into a coma, he was in great agony, said his family.
There is no police report on this matter, although relatives say they have reported the incident to police, and CIB has visited the hospital.
Vernon’s story to his family is that on Saturday around noon, he was sleeping inside his home, located in the Sabal Community of Dangriga. His friend, who was once his brother-in-law (his sister’s boyfriend), came into his room to wake him.
He refused to get up and Vernon claimed that that was when his friend threw kerosene on him, set him on fire and ran out of the house, locking him inside.
And although he cried in pain and screamed for help, he said that it was a long time that his friend came back to help him. The family says they do not know if it was the friend who took Vernon to the hospital.
It was not until yesterday, Sunday, around 5:00 p.m., that Vernon spoke to relatives about how he was burned.
However, when the CIB personnel visited him, Vernon refused to tell them what he had told his family earlier that day.
Today, his condition is not as good as yesterday, and now he cannot talk again.
His sister, Ebony Vernon, 25, told us that the family is confused as to why her ex-boyfriend, 29, would do something like that to her brother.
She told us that although her relationship with the ex-boyfriend ended two years ago, the two have had no problems.
According to the family, the story that the ex-boyfriend is telling them is that he was in his home, an upstairs home in the same yard as Vernon’s house, when he heard him crying out for help.
He said that he ran out to see what was happening to his friend, but when he got in front of the house, the door was locked with a padlock.
The friend said he had to run back upstairs to his house to get the keys to open his friend’s door.
But according to the family, a neighbor in the area has told them that they never heard Fidel crying out for help, but saw when his friend opened a door in Vernon’s house and let him out.
The friend then took Vernon to a standpipe in the yard and put him under the pipe so the water could flow over him.
Vernon’s family questions why he was locked in his home in the first place, and why his friend had the keys to Vernon’s house upstairs at his own home, just at that moment.
His story makes no sense, said Vernon’s relatives, and they are looking for answers.
Late this morning, a tube was placed in Vernon’s mouth to help him breathe.
His family is hopeful that he will regain consciousness and be able to tell police exactly what happened.