Honey vendor killed in hit-and-run to be buried Sunday

Twenty-year-old honey vendor Demar Lilly, who was killed in a hit-and-run in Toll Gate, Clarendon, on June 16, is to be laid to rest on Sunday.

Demar, an aspiring chef, was selling honey along the roadway when the driver of a grey Mitsubishi Pajero ran him over and did not stop. He had been plying his trade at the spot for five years.

When Demar's sister Sanya Lilly spoke with THE STAR in July, she lamented that enough was not being done to apprehend the culprit, adding that the family was disappointed that the killer was still at large.

It has been six months since Demar's death, and the family is still singing the same doleful tune.

"The police nah do anything. All them have pon paper is that him hold on to vehicle and a run. Not even a mad man wouldn't hold on pan vehicle and a run so the vehicle could a run over him and crush him head. Me brother nuh mad ... him have sense," said Kerry-Ann Lilly, another of Demar's sisters.

"People have it a say a him hold on to the vehicle and that is a lie and this is murder. But God is not dead so he won't get away," she said.

Lilly said the family's grief is compounded by protocols in place to reduce the spread of the coronavirus pandemic as large gatherings in public places have been restricted.

This, she said, will adversely impact the type of send-off the family would have preferred.

"We just have to follow the rules and regulations," she said.

The police's Corporate Communications Unit said that a breakthrough is yet to be made in the case. The family is still appealing to anyone who might have information to communicate with the police.