Biker found dead in ditch

June 03, 2025
Blackwood
Blackwood

Yesterday, Sidonna Hinds was still crying in disbelief when she described the moment she found her only son's body lying in a ditch along the Bottom Bay main road, Annotto Bay, St Mary.

Her 24-year-old son, Ronaldo 'Chico' Blackwood, had gone out with friends to a party on Saturday night but did not return. By Sunday morning, the family's desperate search ended in heartbreak.

"Mi cya eat, mi cya sleep, mi devastated," Hinds cried, her voice shaking under the weight of her loss. "Mi nah go see mi pickney inna real life fi hug me up again." Ironically, Hinds said that Blackwood's love for motorcycles had been constant since he was 19, and he seemingly predicted his own demise.

"Him love bike, no matter how yuh tell him drive car. Him crash and mash up him foot last year. Him go through so much wid bike. Him seh, 'Mommy, a bike me love. If me fi dead, a mi bike a carry me home,'" she recalled.

Blackwood, a construction worker and mason from Highgate district, Above Rocks, St Catherine, was riding home with friends from the party when they realised he was no longer trailing them. Though they searched briefly, they ultimately returned home without him, leaving his anxious family waiting in growing panic.

"Mi deh home, me a lay dung, me a say me a wait till mi son come cause mi nuh know what time him a come, but me did a listen cause tru him ride a bike, me a listen out fi him," she recalled. "Mi a wait till him come so me can drop asleep cause me worried." But when she finally heard motorcycles, it was his friends looking for him.

"Mi look out deh and me brother call me and say, 'Sidonna,' then me seh, 'Nuh Chico that at the gate?' And him say, 'No, is somebody come here a look fi Chico.'"

Her confusion quickly turned to dread. "So me say, 'How uno fi a ask me fi Chico and a him and uno go weh uno a go?' Mi start get devastated and start cry and a ask, 'Where is mi child?'"

Hinds and her brother drove around looking for Blackwood, checking with relatives in St Mary. They contacted the police, and even visited the hospital - all to no avail.

"We a drive a go back home now and we stop, we see one sea and a look over deh in a di bush if him drop or nobody carry him go noweh," she said. "Yuh know how far me walk go over the seabed? And the way how the sand bed dutty, me a walk same way a search inna some bush bush." Finally, they spotted something: a ski mask near the edge of a ditch.

"When me look over, Jesus Christ me cya believe a the sight a mi baby that," Hinds sobbed. She explained that Blackwood's crash site was barely a chain away from where his cousin had also crashed that night.

"Me a seh how comes that them never even look and see if him over desso. Boy, mi baby dead, dead, dead. If we did find him in time, him life woulda probably save," she lamented. "If him probably have on the helmet, him wouldn't get dah lick deh so much." Hinds now clings to the memory of their last playful exchange before he left.

"Him kiss me when him a go weh. Him say, 'Mommy, weh yah watch mi Clarks fah? A nuh your Clarks,' and me laugh and tell him, 'Mi nuh want yuh Clarks, yuh bright eeh.' Him smile and seh, 'Mommy, you a the genna.'"

Now, with her daughter left in tears, Hinds said the house feels unbearably empty.

"Right now, she nuh stop cry fi her brother, and she nuh have nuh other sibling. Him a the only son fi him father. Him lose him one son. Mi nuh know how him ago manage. Lord Jesus Christ, help we."

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