Tyson’s grief for Exodus (4)
Wednesday May 27 2009
The four -year-old daughter of boxer Mike Tyson has died in hospital, a day after her neck apparently got caught in a treadmill cord at her Phoenix home.
Exodus Tyson was pronounced dead just before noon yesterday. She had been on life support and police said their investigation showed her injury was a “tragic accident.”
“There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Exodus,” the family said in a statement. “We ask you now to please respect our need at this very difficult time for privacy to grieve and try to help each other heal.”
Police said Exodus either slipped or put her head in the loop of a cord hanging under the console. Her seven-year-old brother found her and told their mother. She took Exodus off the cord, called emergency services and tried to revive her.
Former heavyweight champion Tyson was in Las Vegas at the time of the accident and flew to Phoenix, where he was seen entering the hospital.
Modest
The family’s home is in a modest neighbourhood. Neighbours say they saw Tyson there from time to time and the children played outside regularly.
Dinka Radic, who lives across the street, said Exodus would ask her if she had any chocolate. When Radic gave her some, Exodus would hug the woman’s knees and “kiss, kiss, kiss.”
The neighborhood contrasts starkly with the lavish lifestyle Tyson had through his tumultuous years of boxing, when he spent tens of millions of dollars and says he had millions more stolen from him by unscrupulous associates.
During two years at the height of his career, he earned $140 m (f100m).
The death of his child in such an unusual accident adds an awful chapter to the troubled life of the boxer who once bit off a piece of his rival’s ear during a boxing match and served three years in prison after being convicted of the rape of a beauty pageant contestant in 1990.