A St. George's woman yesterday found the remnants of what was once a monument to her dead son – snapped and thrown into the ocean.

Deborah Davis' son, Derick Paynter Jr., died in a motorcycle accident near Mullet Bay St. George's in the summer of 2006.

On Tuesday on her way home, Ms Davis discovered that vandals had removed the memorial, cement base and all. "This was extremely disrespectful and uncalled for," said Ms. Davis. "It has been like living the day he died all over again."

Shortly after his death, Ms Davis erected a memorial in Derick's honour at the corner of Mullet Bay Road in St George's – close to where her son was killed. The memorial, in the form of a cross, had Derick's Birthday, his name and the day of his death etched into it. Until yesterday Ms Davis thought that the memorial was lost forever.

But, while snapping photographs of Ms Davis and the area, a Royal Gazette photographer stumbled upon the broken remains of the memorial in the shallow water of Mullet Bay.

"Someone had picked it up and thrown it into the water," Ms Davis said. "Half of the cross was completely missing and it was badly cracked."

She added: "I don't know why someone would do this. It has been there for four years without a problem and all of a sudden some vandal decides to destroy my son's memorial – it makes me very sad."

Ms. Davis claims to have complained to the police about the vandalism and says she is considering the possibility of making a new memorial for Derick.