FINDING PAGE
Desperate search to find UWI student who doubles as inDrive service provider
“I just can’t eat or sleep until I find him, you understand? I just want to find him. It’s very frustrating. It’s hard, it’s overwhelming, it’s disheartening when you have someone out there and you searching every single day you caan get an answer.”
As the days drudge on in searing fashion, the search for missing 26-year-old Leroy Page continues.
Page, who is a student at The University of the West Indies, Mona, and a contractor with the rideshare app inDrive, was reported missing last Saturday. Recalling their last conversation, a close friend told
THE WEEKEND STAR, “We got off the phone when he was picking up his passengers, that was after 12 [a.m.] I sent him a message at 12:47 saying ‘Good night’ and ‘I love you’ and all that. Then I said to him, ‘Please do not work late’ and he said ‘I’m gonna’.”
They ended their final conversation at 12:48. On Sunday morning when her attempts to reach him went unanswered for several hours, she became increasingly concerned.
“After six me nuh hear from him so me a say no this serious,” she said. The friend said that by the time she got to the Spanish Town Police Station to make the report, she broke down.
“No words would come. They [police] had to calm me down and say ‘Take your time’ and all I could say was ‘Missing’. So she say ‘Who’s missing?’ and all I could do was cry,” she said. Hours after the report was made, Page’s car was found in Padmore district in Red Hills, St Andrew. Several searches have been mounted.
According to the police’s Corporate Communications Unit, while there have been reports that a body was found, the identity has not been confirmed.
“I just can’t eat or sleep until I find him, you understand? I just want to find him. It’s very frustrating. It’s hard, it’s overwhelming, it’s disheartening when you have someone out there and you searching every single day you caan get an answer. You can’t sleep, you can’t eat. You’re thinking if he’s crying out for help, if he’s there losing blood, if he’s unconscious,” she said.
The friend said that although their searches have been largely unsuccessful, losing hope is not an option.
“We’re still not giving up. We will update people that are interested when will be the next search date because persons have been asking,” she said, while calling on Jamaicans to put themselves in the shoes of Page’s loved ones.
“Everyone has a loved one that they appreciate, that one that is the gel that brings the family together. Leroy Page is that person. So if they have that one person in their family, that’s what he means to us. So if anyone knows anything, please, we a implore enuh, come out and give some information. All we want to do is to find him, the family needs closure. And continue to pray for the family because the family needs strength at this time,” she added.