Heartbreak

Adams, who represented this country at the CONCACAF Under- 15 Women’s Championship in Orlando last year, was found dead by the side of the road in Courland, Tobago, with her throat slit less than 12 hours after being reported missing by her mother Katherine Gill.

There were tears and screams yesterday from members of the Under-15 team who played alongside the talented and charismatic Adams.

Ricarda Nelson, manager of the national Under-15 team, said the girls are all inconsolable.

“It’s heartbreaking. You still cannot understand how the mother or family feels right now. What could a young girl like Abiela do to deserve what happened to her? We really need to deal with what is happening in our society today,” Nelson said.

“All my players right now are in tears, crying because they were all close. I could hear the screams while on the phone with some of the parents. I am a mother and you have to ask how do you deal with something like this. Her mother was always there at training last year. We even thought that her mother didn’t have a job because she was always there to assist with the team and her daughter, travelling back and forth between Trinidad and Tobago” Nelson said to TTFA Media.

Marlon Charles, who coached Adams at the CONCACAF Championships last year, expressed dismay and shock on hearing the news of her death.

“When you hear news like this it reflects on home because as someone you have coached, these players become part of you. You think about it as a father, as a parent, as a coach, you reflect on how she would have encountered everything she had to go through. This is really a traumatic situation that has hit us really hard in the football fraternity,” Charles told TTFA Media.

“She had great potential to go on to play for other national teams and would have been part of the upcoming screening for the national under 17 women’s team. She journeyed over from Tobago for the Under 15 screening last year and made the final selection and turned out to be one our better players and I am certain she would have been back for the Under 17s.

These are dreams a young lady surely would have had and it has been taken away,”he added.

TTFA president David John-Williams also expressed condolences to the family of Adams.

“We are deeply saddened by the news of young Adams’s passing.

Our deepest sympathies goes out to her family and we pray that God will grant her family and her closed ones the much needed comfort and peace during this time,” John-Williams stated “The TTFA will make every effort to support the family in this difficult time,” he added.

Meanwhile, manager of the Jewels Sport Club, Carel Percy, a club which Adams was a part of was too distraught for words.

“RIP to one of our babies. One of our stars, our Jewels SC baby Abiela Adams. We all know she had a bright future, National Under- 15 Footballer. It’s really sad.

This is too close to home,” she posted on her Facebook page.

National player Maylee Attin Johnson yesterday called on Tobago to not follow the ungodly trend of killing that is taking place in Trinidad. Johnson posted several pictures of her and Adams in happier times, saying, “I will always remember your infectious smile”.

Another senior national player, Kennya ‘Yaya’ Cordner of Tobago, was also shell-shocked by the young footballer’s murder.

“Lord please tell me why...this one hurting my whole soul right now , just last night we talking about you girls coming to play U-17 and the coaches coming up to see you I can’t my heart is bleeding,” she posted on Facebook.

There were also posts online from those who did not know Adams personally. One status said: “Hear my cry oh lord what have this little girl do to be treated with such brutality Rest In Peace baby girl I don’t know you personally but you and my daughter were in first form together and I feel your pain. Rest In Peace lil angel this one is really hard hmmmm imagine how her family and friends who close to her feel. I am not even her friend or family and I feel because I am crying out as a mother I have a girl child and I won’t like this to happen to her.” While another said: “Didn’t even know u. Used to see you in school. You wasn’t even a trouble maker. Just so they killing out the young talents. R.I.P baby girl u will be missed.”