On the afternoon of Saturday January 4th, an incident at sea occurred in Providenciales.
3 males including a 9 year old minor, went on an afternoon fishing trip and experienced difficulties at sea.
Shortly after 3:00 PM on Saturday, the Police Control Room received a report of a vessel in distress
which had departed Cooper Jack Bay.
The vessel experienced engine failure and began taking on water in the bow.
With the swift response of boating volunteers, the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force
Marine Unit, the Department of Environmental and Coastal Resources, Fisheries and the United States Coast Guard air support, two individuals—a male in his mid-twenties
and the minor—were successfully rescued and transported to Cheshire Hall Medical Center for medical evaluation.
Efforts to locate the third individual, a well known athlete and boxer – Jim Kelly Joseph, continued until about 9:30pm Saturday night.
Efforts continued Sunday morning resulting in the finding of Joseph’s body around 9:10am, near Morley’s Reef.
Jim Kelly, 32 years old was described by the hundreds who gathered as a strong young man, determined and a fighter. His motto, Humble, Discipline, Respect.
He was recently released from a 4 year and 9 month stint in prison for firearm related offences.
Upon release from prison, Joseph said that the only thing which kept him motivated was seeing his son again.
Joseph sat at the head of the boxing federation hoping to restart the sport and possibly open his gym once he was released from prison.
The boxing champ in an exclusive interview with TCI Sun newspaper, said God has a way of working in mysterious ways, adding that he took God for granted.
He stated quote,
“God has a way of working in mysterious ways and I took him for granted because he got me up top, but I forgot that He was the reason why I got there so He had to remind me that all that I worked hard for, He was the one that gave it to me so He will take it away from me in order to remind me that He was the one who brought me there, so now I have to walk that line straight according to His actions and His way and will,” end quote
He will be missed by the entire community of the Turks and Caicos Islands. He was a determined, disciplined young man helping the youth of today.
May his soul rest in peace and rise in glory.
