Jlloyd was a
professional footballer who’d been born in Trinidad and Tobago but made it here
in England. One Tuesday having dropped his kids off at school he was driving
home and was in a head-on car crash. He died in a ball of flames and was so
badly burnt only dental records identified him. I’d watched a documentary about
him and knew it'd happened in a semi-rural part of Cheshire so while crisscrossing
the county I went to look at the spot where life ended aged 37.
He was born 4000 miles away and was so adroit with
a football that he came to England and played for some academies. By age 26 he
was playing for Bolton Wanderers. His weekly pay-packet increased from £400 to
£15,000. He spent the last four years of his professional career in the Iran
Pro League where he was seen as a bit of a semi-God. Returning to Britain he
became a player-manager of Cheshire-based amateur team Egerton.
He received offers to play abroad but chose to stay in Cheshire to remain close
to his family.
The documentary I watched didn’t focus on his
football career but a past life he’d kept secret. Though he was married with
three children an Iranian fashion designer Helia Sahimi claimed he had married her previously (converting to
Islam to do so.) Married or not they had enjoyed a seven year relationship in
Dubai.
On Tuesday 15th May 2018 he had taken his
children to school and was driving home in his £100,000 Range Rover when he
strayed across the middle of the road and smashed into a van. The car erupted
into an inferno killing him instantly (the van driver was badly injured.) An
inquest showed Samuel was intoxicated (twice the drink-driving limit.) The
temperature of the fire was so high there was little left of his body. His
teeth had survived and were used to match his dental records. His sister went
on to accuse his widow of faking his death to claim on life insurance, adding
that the samples were not released for her to check against her own DNA. The
coroner said that the samples remain the property of Jlloyd’s
widow.
I parked up on this country road in High Legh alongside a row of large detached houses. Before I got
out of the car I could see from photos I had exactly where the crash had
happened (it was a £100,000 Range Rover.) I spent about thirty minutes there
(having the perennial coffee in the car afterwards) and found the country road
was barely used. I strolled up and down the road which is surrounded by
farmland and thought perhaps there may be some scorch marks on the road
surface. Nothing. There’s a wooden fence which was charred black but has been
replaced (nothing burnt there.) From photos I had I identified from trees under
which the crash happened.
When I stood on grass verges to take photos the
odd passing driver swivelled their head wondering what I was doing. You
wouldn’t know someone had died and left one/two wives and four children (there
was another from a previous relationship). Jlloyd’s
sister, Iranian wife and his parents believe the footballer is still alive
(unlikely.) The life insurance company didn't payout as there was alcohol in Jlloyd's his blood.
What a sad tale. This is not a good advert for
Range Rovers if they explode on impact like this. I did a salute and left.