LOVE STORY’S TRAGIC END
Queens teens killed in crash days after ‘dream’ car got out of shop
A Queens teen and his girlfriend are being mourned on two continents after they died in a crash in a luxury car he had just finally gotten out of the shop following an earlier accident.
Jevon “Jay” Lyken, 19, crashed his beloved Infiniti into the back of a moving SUV, then careened into a tree off the Southern State Parkway on Long Island about 5:40 a.m. on Jan 28, state police said. It was only four days after he got the vehicle back on the road.
“Twelve days ago, prior to Jevon’s death, I brought that car out of the mechanic shop,” Lyken’s devastated mother, Giselle Mohamed, told mourners at her son’s funeral at Bergen Funeral Service in South Ozone Park last Monday. “I spent thousands bringing it out.”
“But I have no regrets,” she added, standing in front of her son’s coffin near a display of red roses spelling out MOM. “That car made my son happy.”
The 2015 Infiniti Q50 had been out of commission for about three months after an earlier crash. In November, Lyken posted an online fundraiser asking for donations to pay for repairs, which he referred to as “restoring a dream.”
The 2015 Jeep Compass that Lyken struck in the center lane spun out of control, hitting the center concrete barrier before coming to rest in the left lane, state police said. The Jeep driver was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
Lyken and his 18-year-old girlfriend, Debarpita Dey, died at the scene after the Infiniti slammed into a tree on the right shoulder.
After the fatal crash, Lyken’s grieving mother and her son’s friends and their parents went to the scene of the crash, near Exit 35 in Suffolk County, to recover pieces of the car her son loved so much.
“I was searching that spot for any little traces of my son’s car,” Mohamed said during her son’s eulogy as she cried. “With all the mud, we put them in his room. That’s what I have left of my son.”
Lyken lived with his mother in South Richmond Hill, while his girlfriend lived with her relatives in Corona.
Dey’s funeral took place halfway around the world, in her native Bangladesh.
“She was just a ball of energy,” said Dey’s cousin, who identified himself as Abir, 27. “She brought light into every single room she stepped into. She was quirky. She was always cracking a joke.”
The teen, who graduated last year from Hillcrest High School in Jamaica, Queens and who was nicknamed Broti, was a talented painter, nail tech and the family stylist, especially for events, said another relative.
“There was a line of aunts, cousins, my nieces that would go to her and we would just wait in line,” said cousin Trishita Dey, 25. “She was just a really bright light in my family.”
At Lyken’s funeral, his mother described going through her son’s phone after his death and reading the tender messages between the teens.
“I can see the love and care and concern and compassion she had for Jevon,” Mohamed said of her son’s girlfriend. “She was good for Jay and Jay loved her.”
“Her presence was very magnetic,” Dey’s cousin Ritu Dey, 26, said of the teen. “She was hysterical with a very dry sense of humor. She teased you, out of love, and you always knew it.”
Born in Sylhet, Bangladesh, Dey first came to New York as a 5-year-old before moving back and forth with her family and eventually settling in Queens with her two older sisters for middle and high school.
“The phrase ‘It takes a village’ — she was the epitome. There were just so many people that played the role of her parents, so many people have a soft spot for her,” said Abir.
“She’s going to be deeply missed [by] all of us, people from all across the world.”
Dey’s parents held services for their daughter in her hometown of Sylhet, said Abir.
“Her body was sent to Bangladesh for last rites. They literally blocked out a whole street,” said the cousin. “Her mother is just in shambles. It’s killing them both inside.”
Lyken also had a back-and-forth childhood, adding to the bond between the young couple.
At his funeral, his mother recalled moving with her son from New York to Guyana to Trinidad and back again.
“There were many trials and tribulations. Jevon stood behind me,” she said. “All of my tiredness, all the pain, everything that was wrong, everything that humbled me, everything that made me fall was worth it in those arms.”
“My strength came from Jevon,” she added. “Jevon was a child filled with love and compassion.”
Mohamed also talked about how her son’s life revolved around his best friends and Dey.
“My last memory of her was Friday night,” said Mohamed. “[At first] I didn’t see Dey. You just saw Jevon because he was a gentle giant and then I’d see this little head stick out: ‘Hi!’ ”
Mohamed recalled her son getting a phone call from his girlfriend the following night to go out after Mohamed fixed him dinner and how Lyken checked up on his mother throughout the evening while she was with her friends.
Hours later the young couple died together in the crash.