• Submitted by: lena campos
• Society
• 08 / 25 / 2012

---

A Mississauga family is seeking answers after 22-year-old Horace “Odaine” Lumley was found dead this week at a Cuban hotel.

Lumley’s half-sister, Monique Lewis, said her family first heard of the death from friends Wednesday.

Lumley, who was born in Jamaica and moved to Mississauga as a preteen, left for Cuba on his “first real vacation” last Friday, Lewis said.

He travelled with a group of coworkers to the Barcelo Solymar Arenas Blancas Resort on Varadero Beach.

“He wanted to relax, because he was always working so hard,” Lewis said, her voice breaking. “I still can’t believe this happened.”

His family is still trying to piece together what happened the night he died. The last time he was seen alive, his coworkers had left him behind at the hotel with a young woman he had met at the resort, Lewis said.

When they returned, Lumley had fallen 16 metres to his death from the third-floor balcony, she said.

“At first I thought it was an accident . . . we’re beginning to get more and more suspicious.”

The Canadian embassy has been working with the Cuban police, Lewis said. But she still has unanswered questions, such as the whereabouts of the young woman and why Lumley’s cellphone SIM card had apparently been cleared when it was returned.

Lumley, a graduate of The Woodlands secondary school, grew up with Lewis, her brother Gregory, and her mother and father in a small townhouse in the Erindale Woodlands neighbourhood of Mississauga.

Lumley was the youngest of their father’s children, she said.

He was well-known in the close-knit community. He often helped elderly neighbours with their groceries, Lewis said.

“Everyone who knew him says he was fun-loving, charismatic, handsome and friendly,” she said. “But the biggest thing is that he was ambitious . . . That’s why my family moved here, to have opportunities and to give us a better life.”

He had been working as a sales representative but was supposed to begin an electrical engineering course at Humber College in September, Lewis said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed in an email to the Starthat consular officials are assisting the family of a Canadian who died in Cuba, but declined to give further details, citing privacy reasons.

Lumley’s father, Tony, is a cook at Piatto Bistro in Mississauga. Staff there said he hasn’t been in since Wednesday.

Friends took to social media this week to mourn Lumley’s death.

“Rip odaine lumley — gone and never forgotten xo,” tweeted one person, while another wrote “R.I.P. Odaine holy lifes way to short, god bless.”

Source: The Toronto Star