The life and death of Fritznel Richard: What happens after Roxham Road

Not quite two years old, Jeffrey has travelled across more countries than most people see in a lifetime.

Lying in his mother's lap, his eyes wide, he barely makes a sound. The only time he cries is when she puts him down.

His mother is Guenda, the wife of Fritznel Richard, the 44-year-old man whose frozen body was found more than a week after he attempted to cross by foot into the United States on Dec. 23.

They're sitting on a couch in the Naples, Fla., home of Guenda's younger sister. A framed photograph of Richard, taken at their wedding, sits on a table next to them.

CBC has agreed not to use Guenda's last name due to her precarious immigration status and fear of being deported to Haiti. 

"I lost a good husband, an amazing partner. He was always there for us," she says. 

It's the day after Richard's family held a small private funeral for him in Naples.

Frantz André, who advocates for asylum seekers in Montreal, has travelled here to bring Richard's ashes home to Guenda. He agreed to let CBC follow him to Florida for a radio documentary about Richard's life.

André has been helping asylum seekers in Montreal for free for more than seven years. He didn't know Richard while he was alive but managed to get Guenda's phone number after her husband died, and offered to help answer questions from police and organize a funeral for him in Montreal.

He – and Guenda – hope Richard can be a catalyst for change, pushing Canada to improve support for migrants. 

Guenda recounts the life she shared with Richard and the journeys they undertook in search of stability and security.

"My life changed when I met Richard. He's somebody that always gives you strength and was always trying his best," Guenda says. "He'd say, 'This is what we're going to do. It's going to work out, we're going to get out of this situation. Don't be discouraged. Keep your head up.'" 

Just a year and a half ago, they were walking through the Darién Gap with Jeffrey, two months old at the time.

The Darién Gap is a treacherous 100-kilometre stretch of jungle at the Columbia-Panama border that has seen a surge of hundreds of thousands of migrants, like Richard and his family, fleeing poverty and strife in South and Central America made worse during the pandemic.