The body of Theo Toppin, 22, was yesterday fished out of the Careenage where he jumped Tuesday, apparently in a fit of jealousy.
Toppin, a painter of Friendship Terrace, St Michael, is believed to have taken his own life shortly after an incident at King George Road, Bank Hall, St Michael.
Reports indicated the young man visited the home of his former girlfriend Shanni Rodney and smashed the windscreen and driver’s window of a car she was sitting in with a male friend, which was parked in front of the house.
Toppin reportedly sustained serious injuries to his hands and ran away from the area after police were summoned.
He was later spotted by two uniformed police officers bleeding profusely and walking along the Lewis/Wickham Boardwalk in The City.
According to further reports when the two officers approached him to inquire about his injuries, Toppin jumped into the water and disappeared.
The incident has left Linda Toppin in tears and dumbfounded about why her only child would have taken his own life.
She spoke of last seeing her son alive just after 10 o’clock Tuesday night, when according to her, he [Theo] received a telephone call.
“Theo just suddenly told me he was going down the road and come back,” she said.
The grieving mother said she received a telephone call about 15 minutes later from a female caller who told her that Theo “had gotten into a little noise and his hands were cut badly”.
Her next telephone call came from the police who relayed similar information about her son’s incident and advised that she should make sure Theo got urgent medical attention.
“I was calling him all the time but I just wasn’t getting through his cellphone,” his mum sadly recalled.
Toppin said she had asked her friend for a car drop to the Wharf area where she was told her son was last seen, but on searching the area came up empty-handed.
Yesterday, she received the dreaded news that her son’s body was retrieved from the Careenage waters.
“From the time the police removed the sheet from the body and I saw the toes, I knew that was my son,” she moaned.
Theo’s former girlfriend’s family were also in pain about his sudden passing.
Rodney’s father and family spokesman Eric McGeary said that following the car smashing incident, they frantically searched everywhere for Theo, especially since he was bleeding profusely.
“We drove down by the Wharf and looked everywhere and even went to the Accident & Emergency (A&E) Department at the hospital [Queen Elizabeth] to find out if Theo had been there,” he said.
McGeary said the incident had left the entire family household grieving since they had become accustomed to Theo visiting their home.
He said his daughter, who was friendly with Theo, was too distraught to talk about the incident.
“I can’t believe this thing happened,” he said.
