Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Jamaica killing revives S. Florida case
Suspect known to Lauderdale detectives
A decade ago, Omar Best Collymore’s girlfriend was shot dead in a Fort Lauderdale street. Her killer was never charged, but police always considered Collymore someone of interest.
Now his wife is dead. He was charged with murder after she was gunned down outside her apartment complex in Jamaica, and Fort Lauderdale detectives are working with Jamaican authorities in hopes of solving their own long-cold case.
The two slayings have several similarities, Fort Lauderdale Detective Tracy Figone said in a statement.
In addition to being romantically linked to Collymore, both women had life insurance policies that listed Collymore as a beneficiary, according to Broward court records and relatives.
For years, Collymore, 35, has been a person of interest in the slaying of Angela Aguiar on June 30, 2008. But Fort Lauderdale investigators didn’t have enough evidence to make an arrest.
Aguiar, 38, was killed about 3:30 a.m. when the couple were on their way to a downtown bar to meet friends. As they got out of their truck on Northwest Second Avenue, just west of the county’s bus terminal, an assailant approached the pair and shot Aguiar in the head and chest.
Collymore, who told police he saw the gun and darted away to take cover, was not hurt. Aguiar, a real estate agent, had bought a $1 million life insurance policy about a month before she was killed, court records show.
Elijah Aguiar, Aguiar’s son, has been waiting nearly a decade for justice for his mother’s killing and says he’s long lost confidence in police efforts to put Aguiar’s killer behind bars.
“Ten years later, I feel numb. I feel no matter what happens, it won’t bring her back,” he said. “I feel she never met her grandkids — I have two kids — and I feel hurt. I feel like a part of me died as well.”
On Angela Aguiar’s birthday, he takes his children to her gravesite to blow out candles and have cupcakes. The kids run around the
“Ten years later, I feel numb. I feel no matter what happens, it won’t bring her back. I feel she never met her grandkids — I have two kids — and I feel hurt. I feel like a part of me died as well.” Elijah Aguiar, 2008 murder victim’s son
cemetery’s open field. They don’t know how grandma died, and Elijah doesn’t plan to share the painful truth until they’re much older.
Elijah Aguiar, now 26, was a 17-year-old boy when police knocked at his home to tell him his mother was dead.
In Jamaica, Simone Campbell Collymore’s children were younger still. She left behind a 7-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son, her sister, Keshtina Bonner, said. They still wonder where their mother is. Grieving relatives remain vigilant for signs of depression in the children, she said.
“It’s extremely hard,” Bonner said. “It’s hard to say whether they really understand or not.”
According to the Jamaica Constabulary Force, at about 4 p.m. Jan. 2, unknown assailants on motorcycles opened fire, striking Campbell Collymore, 32, and her cab driver, Winston Walters, 36. Both died at the hospital.
Later, on Feb. 6, a warrant was issued for Collymore’s arrest, and he was captured two days later.
The Jamaican police agency is not offering details about how investigators linked Collymore to the double slaying. At least two other people have been taken into custody in connection with the murders and more suspects are being sought, a spokeswoman said.
Bonner said that with her sister’s death and Collymore’s arrest, “we have literally lost two members of this family.” Campbell Collymore was a Jamaican entrepreneur with electronics and construction businesses and a jewelry store in a Kingston shopping district, her sister said. Collymore was her business partner.
The couple regularly traveled to South Florida and bought a home in Coral Springs about six years ago, property appraiser records show.
“Simone is the sweetest person you’ll ever meet, and I’m not saying that because she’s my sister,” Bonner said. “She was a young mogul building an empire on her own. She was really making major moves.
“She kept saying, ‘2018 is going to be an amazing year,’” she said. “That was just cut short for her. She was robbed of those opportunities.”
The couple had life insurance policies listing one another as beneficiaries, Bonner said. The policies were valued at more than $600,000.
Court records in a civil case disputing how Aguiar’s life insurance proceeds would be disbursed show her insurer made inquiries with police about her homicide.
In email exchanges between a Fort Lauderdale detective and insurance claims analyst in June and September 2010, the detective said Collymore was still implicated in the case.
“No progress,” the detective wrote. “Yes, Omar Best [Collymore] is still a suspect.”
Ultimately, the civil case was resolved and Collymore was awarded $400,000. Aguiar’s son received the rest of the life insurance money.
Elijah Aguiar said he learned about Collymore’s link to his wife’s murder through Bonner, who reached out to him on Facebook. He said that now that Jamaican authorities have charged Collymore with his wife’s murder, he’s more convinced that Collymore was responsible, too, for his mother’s death.
“He probably felt like a God like he could get away with everything,” Aguiar said. “Nothing will bring my mother back.”