Now, less than two weeks after laying his young daughter to rest, a relative confirmed the death of the grieving father on Sept. 9, at the Percy Junor Hospital in Mandeville, after a battle with colon cancer, per The Jamaica Star.

“He was already gravely ill, and then when his daughter was murdered, he took down worse,” a family friend told The Jamaica Observer. “He was in hospital shortly after the incident and didn’t even get to go to her funeral two weeks ago. His heart was broken.”

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As the usually quiet farming district of Troy, located in the southern part of the parish of Trelawny, continues to heal from the aftermath of Shani’s shocking murder, her father’s untimely death undoubtedly exacerbates the grief experienced by all of those who loved them both in the tight-knit community.

“💔 A family grieving twice in just two weeks…,” Aston’s cousin, Nicola, shared on Instagram. “Rest in peace to my cousin, Aston Coke, who buried his beloved daughter only two weeks ago. Our hearts are broken.”

Shani’s murder and the subsequent vigilante killing of the suspected culprit, Delroy Coke, her older cousin, and the hospitalization of his father, Maxwell Coke, at the hands of an angry mob seeking jungle justice sent shockwaves across Jamaica and the Caribbean diaspora, sparking conversations online and in homes about pedophilia, incest, sexual assault, and weaknesses in Jamaica’s criminal justice system.

“Jamaica absolutely needs to make a public Sex Offender registry expeditiously! Safety should be top priority always!” commented another Instagram user. “The crime rate is high there and so many young people especially young girls/woman are being targeted as vulnerable victims.”

On the evening that Aston received the phone call about Shani’s death, he said he could not bring himself to approach the scene where her body was carelessly discarded.

“I was terrified,” he said. “I didn’t even know myself.” He remained on the roadway until almost midnight, telling The Gleaner the following day, “I miss my daughter very much.”

“Morning and evening Shani would stop by to check on me,” he continued, recalling how he would help his daughter with her homework after school. He also shared that Shani, who excelled academically, regularly came to see him at his hardware store, excited to tell him about her day at school.

For a long time, he expressed concerns about her safety because of a man living in the community with a history of sexually deviant and violent behavior. Aston said he had repeatedly asked Shani’s grandmother not to send her anywhere alone, especially because the route home included an isolated stretch of roadway after the last few houses.

Police confirmed that Delroy was the man who was beaten, chopped, and stoned to death by an angry mob, although he was not seen committing the crime. Investigators said residents inferred he was responsible because of his criminal history, while others say that he confessed to the crime during his attack.

Police continue to emphasize that they have not confirmed that Delroy was responsible for Shani’s rape and murder.