Over a month since his death, Rondell Edward’s fiancé and mother of his three children is speaking out publicly for the first time while she navigates this heartbreak.
“He was a really good dad. My kids loved him so much," Anyssa Nichols said. "My oldest, she’s the one who understands the most, has been saying lately how much she misses her dad."
On Jan. 8, Edwards was found dead inside his Toyota Highlander SUV submerged in a canal along North University Drive and Southgate Boulevard in Tamarac.
The 28-year-old father was a maintenance worker at the Southgate Gardens Apartment Complex and was described as a family man devoted to his three kids.
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“Things are a lot harder without him here,” Nichols said.
Edwards had been reported missing on Jan. 6, two days before his body was discovered. Nichols said she last heard from him around 2 a.m., but he never came home that morning and it was uncharacteristic for him to be out all night.
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“As time went on, 9 o’clock came, 10 o’clock came, and then I was like, alright, this isn’t like you, where are you?" Nichols said. "It’s not like him. He’s never done anything like that. He always comes home."
Nichols was going door to door looking for Edwards across her neighborhood and areas where he frequently visited. Two days later, someone eventually spotted a bumper that matched his car in a nearby canal.
Detectives with the Broward Sheriff’s Office believe that for unknown reasons, Edwards was driving his SUV when he somehow got off the road on Southgate Boulevard and went northbound through a grassy swale right into the canal.
“It’s just too much because we don’t have answers,” Nichols said.
With each passing day, Nichols is waiting for any information as to what went wrong. She is also urging people who live close to the canal or in the community where Edwards worked to check their doorbell cameras to see if they caught something the night he went missing.
“Wrong place, wrong time, something could have happened, but somebody knows something for sure. If you do know something or close to what happened, just inform the police,” Nichols said. “You can report something anonymously and go to Crimestoppers to report it. Just report it because at the end of the day, my kids are without a father now and they miss their dad. He’s somebody who definitely didn’t deserve that at all.”
BSO's Traffic Homicide Unit is continuing to investigate this incident. At this time, BSO is awaiting the results of the Broward County Medical Examiner's report.
Anyone with information on this case can call Broward Crimestoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
