Family seeks answers after 10-y-o found in oven, dies

Louise Stoddart is now wallowing in grief and regret after her 10-year-old grandson – for whom she had cared since birth and was recently relocated from her Clarendon home to live with his father – died after being found unresponsive in an oven last Friday.

The boy, Dantae Johnson, was reportedly with relatives at a property in Harbour View, St Andrew, when he went missing.

“It better mi did have him an’ him dead in a mi hand,” 56-year-old Stoddart told The Gleaner yesterday at the family home in Big Pasture in Mocho, Clarendon.

“Mi have him long time an’ nutten neva do him. Mi cyaa cope wid it ... ,” the grief-stricken grandmother cried.

Stoddart, a double amputee aided by a wheelchair, told The Gleaner that her daughter – Sharlene Morgan, who is Dantae’s mother – had determined that Stoddart had become unfit to care for Dantae and his older brother due to health issues.

Morgan, who works as a domestic helper, reportedly said that it would have been better for the children to stay with their father, a decision they now regret.

“No parent cyaa have children lock up in a house an’ cyaa care fi dem. Wi haffi find solution. My mother is a sick lady and she nuh have no foot. She have diabetes and other stuff, so a she really grow Dantae, but because she ill now, mi try get somebody fi keep my children dem,” Morgan explained.

She added that when she first learned of her husband’s plans to travel into Kingston with the children days before the tragedy, she discouraged the decision.

“They told me Tuesday that dem going to Town. I said to them, ‘I don’t like the idea of them going into Town because too much killing is going on’,” she recalled.

On Wednesday night, she unknowingly saw Dantae for the last time.

“Wednesday night, I saw my husband, Dantae and my other son eating KFC. Mi even say, ‘Unuh give mi piece a di KFC’, and Dantae say, ‘No, yuh nah get none, Mommy’, ... not knowing it was the last KFC my baby gonna eat,” she said, adding that the grief was hard to bear.

The family said they first got news that something was wrong about 1:30 p.m. on Friday, when Morgan received a call from her husband, saying Dantae was missing.

“Mi say, ‘Weh yuh mean yuh cyaa find Dantae?’ Mi say, ‘Unuh guh look fi mi baby!’” she recalled tearfully.

Morgan said that her husband refuted suggestions that the child could have wandered through the gate, citing tight security measures on the premises.

After moments of searching, the boy’s slippers were found.

“When mi on the phone wid [my husband], mi hear him a say ,’Help! Help! Help!’ Him say dem find the baby in a oven fold up,” said Morgan.

On Saturday morning as they tuned in to a newscast, they heard that a 10-year-old boy was found dead on a property in Harbour View. Though jolted, they kept hope alive as the news report had indicated a wrong address.

A subsequent news report, however, identified the child as Dantae Johnson, heightening their concern.

“In the news. they said he was from Race Track, Clarendon. Mi never did a think [it was my nephew] because true dem say Race Track,” the child’s aunt, Fian Morgan, explained.

“Even though they said Dantae Johnson ... because a lot of children can name Dantae, so even though wi watch the news wi still never sure it was him because of the address,” added Morgan.

A phone call later on confirmed their worst fears.

Noting that bruises were seen on Dantae’s arm, Morgan is hoping a post-mortem will unearth the circumstances surrounding her son’s death.

The family says their grief is compounded by the fact that they are not able to fund the burial expenses. As such, they are asking for the public’s assistance.

Anyone willing to assist may contact Sharlene Morgan at 876-333-6233 or Louise Stoddart at 876-210-7678.

olivia.brown@gleanerjm.com