JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A fast food restaurant parking lot in St. Augustine is where Elizabeth Higgins goes to work — and where she goes to sleep.
For the past month and a half, the 54-year-old has been living in her car, surrounded by work clothes, blankets, and the two things she says matter most: a framed photo of her son in his overalls and cowboy hat, and a box of his ashes.
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“My baby comes with me everywhere,” Higgins said.
Higgins is the mother of Anthony Elrod, the 25-year-old worker who died May 9 at BAE Systems, an international ship repair company with a shipyard in Jacksonville. She says she hasn’t heard a word from the company since.
A mother still searching for answers
Elrod was working on a self-propelled modular transporter when he died. Higgins says a coworker who was nearby that day described what happened.
“He was crying. He was crying. ‘What’s on my chest? What’s on my chest?’” Higgins recalled. “And apparently the rim had hit him on his chest and his abdomen.”
She says she still doesn’t know her son’s official cause of death — and BAE Systems has not reached out to her.
“I just want him. And I can’t have my baby back,” she said.
Senator Sanders weighs in
Elrod’s death drew national attention when U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote a letter to BAE Systems CEO Tom Arsenault on June 12. In it, Sanders accused the company of “negligence” and said Anthony was “forced to work a job that he was not properly trained to do.”
Sanders also accused BAE of trying to bust a union that Jacksonville workers were attempting to form, allegedly by laying off up to 200 employees.
RELATED: BAE Systems lays off nearly 200 Jacksonville workers
BAE Systems strongly denied those accusations, calling Sanders’ claims “inaccurate.” In a statement, the company said: “We are concerned that drawing conclusions at this stage, while the investigation continues, does a disservice to the people involved with this tragic accident.”
The company opened a $200 million shiplift at its Jacksonville shipyard last year, a facility designed to lift vessels out of the water for repair work.
‘Never in my life have I been by myself’
While the investigation plays out, Higgins is struggling to survive. She was hospitalized last week after she couldn’t keep food down. She keeps most of her belongings in a storage unit and says she often feels hopeless.
“Never in my life have I been by myself,” she said. “I’m 54, living in my car.”
Still, she keeps her son close. She takes his ashes with her wherever she goes.
“Whenever I can get a room, I get a room. In the car — we eat, we sleep, we talk to each other,” she said.
Her one request of BAE Systems is simple.
“I want to know what’s going on. I want to know why it blew. Why it was his time to go,” she said.