Missing after car rental

The last three days have been agonising for the parents of Kevin Walker, as they drain their remaining energy searching for answers regarding his whereabouts since Saturday.

Speaking with The Gleaner on Monday, Roy Walker, Kevin’s father, tried desperately to paint a picture of hope, but lost his composure when Kevin’s mother, Indiana Edwards, broke down, struggling to understand where her third child out of five could be.

In an emotional moment while sitting with our news team at their Allman Town home in Kingston Central, Walker punched a brick wall, releasing the intense emotions he had been holding in.

Kevin, a 43-year-old entrepreneur known as ‘Chippy’, has been reported missing to the Vineyard Town police, the closest station to his family residence. On Monday, the police issued a missing person’s notice, asking the public for help in locating him.

“Weh mi son deh? A mi son mi want. Tek the money and gwan. Eight hundred thousand dollars? That can’t even buy a house,” Edwards said tearfully.

The money she referenced was reportedly taken from Kevin’s account shortly after his disappearance.

The baffling disappearance has left both family and friends in confusion.

“Him girlfriend call mi and say from in a the morning, Kevin leave the yard and she nah hear from him,” Walker said. “Him nuh give nothing name trouble, neither with badness or nothing.”

He has not been able to sleep or eat since Kevin went missing.

“Kevin nah go nowhere with nobody weh him nuh know, so something must wrong,” Walker said.

He said he cannot sleep nor eat since the disappearance of his son.

Roy also visited Kevin’s workplace at Digicel, where a colleague, who Kevin had helped get a job through their youth club connection, where Kevin was president, struggled to speak due to the shock of the situation.

“It’s a hard pill to swallow,” Edwards said, breaking into tears again.

“Kevin is a nice son. Saturday him come and say him a go rent the car ... then him come and say to me, ‘Mommy, the guy come for the car so mi a go home now’. ‘Cause mi a go do some business, mi say, ‘Alright, Kevin. Mi will see you tomorrow (Sunday) morning.’

“I left and go market, come back and inside, reading the Friday STAR, and his father come and tell mi say his babymother can’t get him from about 1 o’clock,” Edwards recounted.

She said her son is not a stranger in Allman Town as he grew up there.

“Mi just want him ... . If dem kill him, mi will bury him. Look how Kevin good to people. Lord, God, mi never expect this. Kevin good to people,” Edwards said.

‘Base’, Kevin’s right-hand man and childhood friend, was one of the last persons to see him on Saturday.

“Any little thing dat man tell mi ‘bout. It look like [there was] something weh him nah tell mi. Mi and him a come from police youth club days, so everything him tell mi,” he said, adding that Kevin sat across the road on a bench before he left the area on Saturday.

Kevin, known for his small loan business and vehicle rentals, told Base he was going to collect some money and would link up afterward.

He said since then he had been unable to reach Kevin as his phone repeatedy went to voicemail. However, he was shocked when Kevin’s girlfriend told him that the entrepreneur couldn’t be found.

“Mi say something wrong when mi hear she (girlfriend) say money missing out of him account,” Base told The Gleaner.

Base also shared a disturbing dream a mutual friend had, where he (Base) was tied up and threatened over money.

He believes the disappearance is linked to Kevin’s rented Subaru G4, the tracker for which has also stopped working.

The police say their investigation is ongoing.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com