‘Puzzled’ by probe
Attorney questions progression of investigation into fatal crash that left 4 dead
Published:Thursday | June 12, 2025 | 12:10 AMLivern Barrett/Senior Staff Reporter
To access this article in full please login or register today
A politically influential businessman is listed as a director of the company that owns the luxury Mercedes-Benz sedan that was involved in a highway crash in which four people were killed, official documents have revealed. The vehicle was being...
A politically influential businessman is listed as a director of the company that owns the luxury Mercedes-Benz sedan that was involved in a highway crash in which four people were killed, official documents have revealed.
The vehicle was being driven by his daughter, who is an attorney, at the time it collided with a Toyota Probox motor car on the P. J. Patterson Highway in St Catherine on March 30 this year, according to multiple sources.
The Gleaner has opted not to name the businessman, his company or his daughter because they have not been accused of any crime.
The disclosures come as the family of one of the victims has already hired prominent attorney Peter Champagnie, King’s Counsel, to get answers about the status of the police investigation into the crash.
The female driver of the Mercedes-Benz motor car was “warned for prosecution” at the scene, the police reported at the time.
“We are puzzled as to why the investigation has not progressed in the way of any prosecution or a determination of what happened,” Champagnie told The Gleaner when contacted yesterday.
“I find it odd that there has not been any progress in the investigation… and I have reached out to the authorities.”
Assistant Commissioner of Police Gary McKenzie, who heads the Public Safety and Traffic Enforcement Branch, declined to comment on whether the investigation has led to any criminal charges being filed.
“I am not in a position to give that information,” McKenzie told The Gleaner yesterday.
The mother of one of the victims claimed, too, that the driver of the luxury car has not reached out to show any remorse.
“You a wonder if dem have a conscience or if dem have love inside of them,” said the mother of Tyesha Manhertz, 22, one of the four people who died in the crash. She did not want her name published.
“This thing just mek me feel empty inside. When me say empty, I mean every day me haffi a cry and ask why or how this could happen.”
Calls to the businessman’s mobile phone yesterday went unanswered.
The other three people killed in the crash are eight-year-old Trey Stewart; Andre McLeish, 27; and Wendy Lemmie, 29, all of Kingston 7 addresses.
A police report listed excessive speeding, “diverted attention” and a “collision with vehicle in a previous accident” as possible causes of the crash.
Manhertz’s mother recounted that her two daughters, grandson and son-in-law were among several persons inside the Toyota Probox motor car that was returning to Kingston well after midnight from a family event.
Citing the accounts of survivors, she said the driver lost control of the car after the steering wheel “got stiff”, causing it to “lick up in a sup’n and turn over”.
“The car wheel dem up in the air,” said the mother of two.
Miraculously, she said, nearly all the occupants suffered only “scratches and bruises” and other minor injuries.
She claimed that her son-in-law was in the process of assisting the passengers to exit the crushed vehicle, starting with her older daughter and then Tyesha, when the luxury sedan crashed into them.