A DAD has told of the moment police officers knocked on his door to inform him his son had been run over by a freight train – just hours after he dropped him off at his new university.
David Chitanda said his “world collapsed” after learning his bright 21-year-old son, Petrocelli, had been killed in the accident in Newcastle, England, around 3.45AM on September 17.
Chitanda, 58, said: “When police knock at your door there is usually an element of aggression when your eyes meet.
“These two police officers looked timid, I could tell they were bearers of bad news but I didn’t know what.
“After they asked to come inside and sat down, they told me that there had been an incident in Newcastle in the early hours of the morning, a young man had been found dead on the tracks. On checking his pockets, they found a bank card and a driver’s licence which bore my son’s name.
“My world collapsed at that moment.”
But even as he laid his son to rest on Tuesday this week, Chitanda and his wife, Phoebe, 44, told New Zimbabwe.com they were still desperately searching for answers over his death.
At a funeral service at the Stockland Green Methodist Church in Birmingham on Tuesday, Petrocelli’s aunt read a tribute from his mother who said: “He was one true angel on earth and I understand why God would want him with him.
“I have trouble accepting you are gone, so I won’t. It will be like we went for a while without seeing each other. You must know I love and miss you.”
Petrocelli was dropped off at Northumbria University on Friday, September 16, by his parents. A day earlier, Petrocelli, who was looking forward to a three-year industrial design degree programme, had suggested that the family pose for portraits at a photographic studio.
His dad said: “We helped him with his registration and collected his key for his university accommodation. He was excited about the degree programme he wanted to do, and he had passed his college majors with distinction. He had loads of aspirations.”
As his parents drove back to Birmingham, Petrocelli made his final phone call to his mum to tell her he had settled in well.
Later that evening, Petrocelli is known to have enjoyed a freshers’ night out with other students.
Detective Inspector Stuart Mellish of the British Railway Police said: “We know that he was dropped off in a taxi at Knoll Court, on Melbourne Street at 12.58AM and he was last seen walking up Argyle Street in the direction of Manors Railway Station.
“We have had no further sighting of him until sadly he was struck by the train at 3.47AM hours. What remains unclear at this stage is where he was between these times.”
Petrocelli’s dad, David, says police have told him CCTV cameras had lost his son’s movements because some were out order.
“We want the truth of what happened to Petrocelli. Relatives have been to visit us from all over the world and they all have the same question: ‘What happened?’ At the moment we don’t have the answers which by all accounts lie in the missing two hours between his last sighting and the moment he was found dead,” he said.
Petrocelli and his sisters Adelaide, 16, and Tatenda, 6, arrived in the United Kingdom with their parents in 2002 via South Africa where they had lived the previous four years.
They set up home in Folkestone, Kent, before moving to Birmingham in 2008.