carolinediplacido

When 2022 rolled in, we anticipated a year of hope after two years of lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some news stories in 2022 turned out to be tear-jerkers.

This is a look back at the saddest and most shocking stories of the year.

1. Murder-Suicide of Fenron Ferguson and Heavenly Turveus (January)

Fenron Ferguson, a 24-year-old with his own business, shot himself in the head after killing his girlfriend, 20-year-old Heavenly Turveus. The couple who had a one-month-old baby boy was involved in a tumultuous relationship. Ferguson snuck into the home and committed the crime. The couple was found in her bedroom at her mother’s home. The baby was unharmed.

2. Woman Killed On Her Way to Prayer Meeting (January)

Church-goer Claudette Capron was murdered as she entered the church doors for a prayer meeting. She and her sister were in the parking lot of their church when a 17-year-old gunman chased another man, shooting Capron instead, who had turned around to retrieve a face mask from her vehicle.

3. Three Americans Discovered Dead in Exuma Resort (May)

Three Americans on vacation in Great Exuma were found dead in a resort where officials believed they suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning. Vincent Chiarella, 68, was found first in one villa slumped over in a bathroom and a couple, Michael Phillips, 68, and his wife, Robbie Phillips, 65, celebrating their wedding anniversary in a second villa, showed signs of convulsions. A surviving woman was hospitalized with swollen legs and arms. The tourists all died over the course of one evening.

4. Student Killed in a Park (June)

13-year-old Quinton McKenzie of LW Young School was found in a park in the Kemp Road area with bullets to the neck and jaw. Money was also found in his hand. It is believed the video gamer was playing a gambling game when shots were fired. He, with others, ran but he collapsed and died on the scene.

5. Young Woman Killed in Plane Crash (June)

Aleitheia Sweeting was killed in a plane crash after she and seven others returned from Regatta in Long Island. The young mother wished to return to Nassau early but met her fate after the plane took off. Survivors suffered a broken rib, and a bruised back after the twin-engine aircraft went down in bushes two miles from Deadman’s Cay Airport, as they waited to be found before help arrived. Sweeting was described as a sweet and joyous person.

6. Preschooler Killed by Stray Bullet (July)

4-year-old Kenton Seymour was killed while sitting on the lap of his mother when a bullet pierced the windshield of his father’s vehicle as the family took a late-night drive to get food. The gunman was chasing another man when a stray bullet hit the preschooler.

7. Migrants Overturned and Drowned on Human Smuggling Voyage (July)

17 Haitian migrants including an infant, capsized in a human smuggling operation. The group was trying to make their way to Florida for a better way of life, when their vessel capsized in rough seas and they drowned. Twenty-five people who also attempted to make the dangerous voyage were rescued and others were reported missing.

8. College Grad with Bright Future Murdered After Return from USA (August)

Omar Davis Jr, 21, had just returned from college after graduation when his body was found wrapped in a garbage bag and beaten with wounds to the head, face, and chest area. The grisly discovery in the back trunk of a vehicle came after he went missing the night before the incident when suspects put his body in a parked vehicle behind a grocery store. Davis was one of many Bahamians who received scholarships to attend college in the United States.

9. Bull Shark Kills Tourist on Private Excursion (September)

Cruise ship visitor from Pennysylvania, Caroline DiPlacido took a snorkeling excursion with her children when a bull shark off Rose Island, attacked and bit her. The one-day stop in Nassau to enjoy the country’s marine environment turned deadly in a matter of hours. The private tour operators pulled her from the waters and gave medical assistance, but she died not long after. The 58-year-old was an employee of Gannon University.

The tour company that took Caroline DePlacido on an independent excursion when she was killed by a shark, has been identified as Seas the Day Bahamas Tours.

In a post on social media, the boating tour company expressed shock at her unfortunate death.

“All of us at Seas the Day are deeply saddened and shocked by the shark attack at Green Cay…” the company said.

DePlacido, a faculty member at Gannon University in Pennysylvania, booked the company on Tuesday afternoon after she and her family disembarked from the Royal Caribbean Cruise Harmony of the Seas for a snorkeling excursion.

Seas the Day Bahamas Tours then took the family of 5 to 7 members to Green Cay which is half a mile off the popular tourist site, Rose Island. During the course of snorkeling, a bull shark attacked the 58-year-old mother as her children looked on.

She was eventually rescued by her family and the tour operators, who took her to Montague Ramp. All attempts to resuscitate her were futile and she died.

Seas the Day Bahamas describes itself as a boat tour agency that operates excursions “from Nassau to Exuma, Eleuthera, Rose Island and the Underwater Statues of Nassau.”

Reviews on its social media page were favorable. Cindy Krapcho did an excursion on Rose Island, and said her last trip with Captain Welly and Maddy was “fabulous.” She described the crew as “super friendly, knowledgeable and professional.”

Holly Elrod also recommended the tour agency as she reminisced on her last stop on Rose Island which was “the most beautiful beach we’ve ever seen.”

“The turquoise waters were just unbelievable to see,” she said.”

Seas the Day Bahamas has since requested prayers for the family of DiPlacido.

Police confirmed that she suffered an injury to her upper body.

After the incident, her visibly distraught children were seen being comforted as they come to grips with the unimaginable death.

The Royal Bahamas Defense Force and the Royal Bahamas Police Force visited the site of the attack on Wednesday and have since closed off the area.

The Pennsylvania woman killed in the Bahamas by a bull shark is Caroline DiPlacido, a faculty member of Gannon University, a private Catholic university in Erie.

DiPlacido, 58, was a project coordinator in government relations at the university where she was described as “a powerful presence of kindness and friendship to colleagues, students, and the wider community.”

She graduated from Gannon in 1986 and was hired in 2009 as a secretary in marketing and communication, and was responsible for enhancing the university’s relationship with the community.

DiPlacido was vacationing with her family in the Bahamas onboard the Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas Cruise when they booked an independent excursion off Rose Island, a popular snorkeling site for tourists.

While snorkeling, a bull shark attacked and she was bitten in the upper extremities of the body. She was rushed ashore by her family and the tour operator, but later died of her injuries.

Campus Chaplain Rev Michael Kesicki said, “The news is devastating and she will be missed.

“Let us remember Caroline with affection and love. We pray for Caroline as she crosses over to eternity.”

She is survived by her husband David, children–Robert and Allison, and her mother Olivia.

The Erie campus held a prayer vigil on Wednesday afternoon in her honor.