Girl’s bridge fall 15 years after mother’s death leap
A TEENAGER plunged to her death from a motorway bridge 15 years after her mother jumped from a seven-storey balcony while holding her.
Yazmina Howard was just three when her mother Maxine Carr jumped to her death from their flat in 2003.
Yazmina was discovered alive, cold and whimpering near her mother’s body, after surviving the 100ft fall from their flat in Maidstone, Kent. She had suffered skull damage and a broken arm, rib and jaw.
She lived with her grandparents who said “she was more like a daughter to us”.
But the college student, aged 18, died on Monday night after falling from a bridge across the M20 in Larkfield, Kent.
Her grandparents paid tribute to “a beautiful girl, inside and out”, saying Yazmina had appeared to “battle through” the loss of her mother.
She had been out for pizza with a friend before the tragedy at about 10pm. Her grandmother Janet Howard, 68, said: “I got a text from her at 9.23pm saying she was OK. That was the last I heard.
“Whatever happened from then we’ll never know. We don’t know what has driven her to this at all. Yazmina was a beautiful girl, inside and out, who would never hurt anybody.
“She was an emotional person, which may have been connected to the trauma she experienced when we lost her mum.
“But she seemed to battle through it all. She was strong.
“She’d call us nan and grandad, but sometimes ‘mum’ would slip out. She was more like a daughter to us.
“Yazmina didn’t smoke, she didn’t go out clubbing. Even when she drank wine she’d make sure it was vegan because she loved animals. That’s the kind of girl Yazmina was.”
Her grandfather Michael, 70, said: “She spent time with us but also at an apartment which was convenient for her college.
“She studied art, maths and multimedia, but didn’t know whether she wanted to carry on with the course.
“She’d tell us she’d have to start all over again or get a terrible job with terrible money.
“There’s more and more children getting like this and they rarely get the help they need.”
Tributes were left at the bridge yesterday where another teenager took their life in April.
One said: “Darling Yaz, we will remember your laughter.
“I wish you knew how much you were loved. Be at peace my sweetheart.” Yazmina and, inset, as a toddler with mother Maxine