When Debra Vargas Guevara said goodbye to her husband, Air Guard Sgt Christian Guevara on Friday night, she never expected to wake up the next morning to the news that he was dead.
Yesterday, at their Bennett Village, Los Bajos, home, she wept as she looked at photos taken at their wedding four years ago.
Guevara, an officer in the Fixed Wing Unit of the Air Guard, died early yesterday morning when the Nissan B13 in which he was a passenger crashed into a culvert and he was flung out of the vehicle.
The accident took place around 5 am near La Brea Road in Quarry Village, Siparia. Guevara was returning home after playing cards on Friday night at Mangoes, a bar in Santa Flora.
His widow described him as a dedicated officer and family man who was her best friend. The couple had nine children between them from other relationships but Debra said Guevara’s life goal to build a house big enough for all of the children.
She said Guevara called her on Friday to ask if she was coming to meet him at the bar.
“He called me at 8.58 pm and said ‘Dee, you coming to meet me?’ and I told him, ‘No babe, I’m tired, I’m just going to stay home and rest’,” she said.
“Around 3.05 am this morning, he texted me ‘Oh’ because normally if I get up and he on work, I would text him ‘Oh’ and he will respond ‘Oh’- that was the last thing I heard from him.”
But when she awoke sometime close to dawn and realised Guevara was not at home, she began to worry.
“I find he wasn’t coming home so I told my son, something happen to Christian. He hasn’t reached home yet,” Debra said.
“But people was like calling my phone and asking me, “Debbie where you?” and I said, ‘I’m home’ and they asking where Christian, so I say he ent reach home yet and they keep hanging up after that.”
Some time later, a police officer called and gave her the devastating news.
Debra and other family members rushed to the scene and saw Guevara’s body still on the ground.
“It was alleged that the car hit a culvert and a pipeline, it flipped and when I saw him, he was out of the car, I cannot say what else had happened that is what I saw,” she said.
Asked if she knew the driver, Debra said she had no idea who the person was, or who the car belonged to.
The vehicle was taken to the Siparia Police Station. At the station, a young man told the Sunday Guardian the vehicle belonged to his brother and his father was driving at the time of the accident. He said since the accident, no one had heard from or seen his father.
At the time, his brother was being interviewed by CID officers.
Police said they did not know the whereabouts of the driver.
The T&T Air Guard sent out a press release yesterday, extendingcondolences to Guevara’s family. Public relations officer Flight Lieutenant Monique Pantin-Sprott said Guevara joined the Air Guard on March 23, 2001, and had served for 16 years.
