Mystery surrounds death of Morvant boy

Struggling to hold back tears of grief, Steven Matison, father of six-year-old Steron Eligon, who died mysteriously in his sleep Wednesday night, cannot come to terms with his son’s death. Matison thought his son may have died from eating Chinese food, which was laced with a poisonous substance. However, an autopsy on his son’s body yesterday revealed no poisonous substance in his stomach, and this has led to the assumption that he may have died from inhalation of a weed-killer. Matison told Newsday that on entering the Mahabir Courts, Morvant home earlier on the eve of Divali, he smelt a toxic substance in the kitchen. “My girlfriend kept a bottle of paint thinners and a bottle of weed-killer in a cupboard. When I asked Steron if he was playing around up there, he replied ‘no,” said Matison.

“It was a bottle with a yellow label. Instructions were written on the outside, but the substance did not have a name,” said Matison. Matison suspects that Steron may have spilt the contents on the floor, but was too afraid to tell him. “That same night, Steron kept complaining he could not sleep. He never complained of feeling ill that day. I laid him down in bed and patted his back, while putting the fan to blow on him,” said Matison. Matison said when he checked his son in the morning, he was lying motionless on the bed. “The same way I left him sleeping, was the same position I found him in the next morning,” said Matison. The autopsy put the child’s death at close to midnight. “Now we are all confused as to how he died, because they were also doing some spraying in the area, and he could have suffered some kind of double inhalation,” said Matison.

Although there are no leads into his death, a Toxicology Report will be done to determine if there was poison in his blood. Eligon, who attended the Holy Saviour’s Anglican School in Curepe, was described by teachers as a boy you could never forget. One of his teachers, Helen Johnson, said he was an intelligent, ambitious young man, who was very mature for his age. Eligon’s father said he first wanted to be a policeman and then changed his mind, hoping to become an architect. This is something no father should have to go through. We had a very close relationship. It was always the two of us. I am happy that he died a peaceful death, but for someone to die just like that is heartbreaking,” said Matison. The funeral service is expected to take place on Tuesday at the Fatima Roman Catholic Church in Curepe, at 2 pm.