Father Awaits Autopsy Results for Daughter's Mysterious Collapse and Death at Work

By Sheria Brathwaite

A grief-stricken Airy Hill, St Joseph father whose 22-year-old daughter collapsed and died while at work is awaiting the results of an autopsy to get clarity surrounding the cause of her death.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY on Monday, Andrew Worrell, 66, said he was devastated and in anguish as he sought answers regarding his daughter Destiny Hackett’s death because she had no ailments and was “healthy”.

Hackett, an employee of the Snack Shack outlet on St Michael’s Row, The City died around 6:10 p.m. on Saturday while in the bathroom at work. Police said they do not suspect foul play.

A father of five, Worrell described his daughter as his “heart” and “queen” who ran the household in which he and his youngest child, 17, also lived.

He told Barbados TODAY: “She wasn’t sick, no ailments or anything. She was healthy, comfortable and good. I have to go on Thursday when they are carrying out the autopsy; the police officers told me they would give me a call informing me when to come. It would give me a good understanding of what caused her to die that type of way. When I got to her workplace on Saturday, they told me she went into the bathroom and, having realised that she was taking too long to come out, they investigated. When I saw her she was lying with her head to the door and her feet to the toilet. So I don’t know if she had a heart attack, I don’t know. But I am waiting on the autopsy to get answers.”

Worrell said that Hackett, a Lester Vaughan Secondary School old scholar, played a critical role as the head of the household and he was having a difficult time trying to come to grips with her passing.

“It’s rough but it is something I have to accept because I can’t fly in the master’s face, so I am trying to cool my head,” he said. “I was home sitting down waiting till she got home from work when I got the call. Depending on what time she got off from work or how the bus was running she would get home around 7 p.m. or so, so I was just waiting.

“It is the hardest hit I ever got; she was my heart. I’m just trying. I lost a lot of family but I have never felt this way in my life yet because she was my queen. My mother passed away and I didn’t have it so hard. It was only my one that had to deal with her (Hackett) because her mother passed away eight years ago so I raised her. She was a very pleasant girl, everybody in the village liked her and she was very respectable. All this morning I was crying.”

The retired Banks Holdings employee recounted the daily routine of a daughter who was at the centre of daily life.

“I used to leave home at 5 a.m. I would wake her and her sister and tell them I was going to work,” he said. “[Destiny] would dress her little sister for school. She would always help me out. Sometimes when I come home she done cook and everything. I don’t know how to explain it in words but this is not easy. We were close.”

Worrell said this would be a sad Christmas without his beloved daughter and he was just trying to focus on healing from a broken heart and making preparations for her funeral.

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