{"id":890709,"date":"2026-06-25T01:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T01:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/890709\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T01:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T01:36:21","slug":"a-mother-lost-her-son-in-a-workplace-accident-at-bae-systems-now-homeless-she-still-doesnt-know-what-killed-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/890709\/","title":{"rendered":"A mother lost her son in a workplace accident at BAE Systems. Now homeless, she still doesn\u2019t know what killed him"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A fast food restaurant parking lot in St. Augustine is where Elizabeth Higgins goes to work \u2014 and where she goes to sleep. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy baby comes with me everywhere,\u201d Higgins said.<\/p>\n

Higgins is the mother of Anthony Elrod, the 25-year-old worker who died May 9 at BAE Systems<\/a>, an international ship repair company with a shipyard in Jacksonville. She says she hasn\u2019t heard a word from the company since.<\/p>\n

A mother still searching for answers<\/p>\n

Elrod was working on a self-propelled modular transporter when he died. Higgins says a coworker who was nearby that day described what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was crying. He was crying. \u2018What\u2019s on my chest? What\u2019s on my chest?\u2019\u201d Higgins recalled. \u201cAnd apparently the rim had hit him on his chest and his abdomen.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says she still doesn\u2019t know her son\u2019s official cause of death \u2014 and BAE Systems has not reached out to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want him. And I can\u2019t have my baby back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Senator Sanders weighs in<\/p>\n

Elrod\u2019s death drew national attention when U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote a letter<\/a> to BAE Systems CEO Tom Arsenault on June 12. In it, Sanders accused the company of \u201cnegligence\u201d and said Anthony was \u201cforced to work a job that he was not properly trained to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>BAE Systems lays off nearly 200 Jacksonville workers<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

BAE Systems strongly denied those accusations, calling Sanders\u2019 claims \u201cinaccurate.\u201d In a statement, the company said: \u201cWe are concerned that drawing conclusions at this stage, while the investigation continues, does a disservice to the people involved with this tragic accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u2018Never in my life have I been by myself\u2019<\/p>\n

While the investigation plays out, Higgins is struggling to survive. She was hospitalized last week after she couldn\u2019t keep food down. She keeps most of her belongings in a storage unit and says she often feels hopeless.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever in my life have I been by myself,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m 54, living in my car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, she keeps her son close. She takes his ashes with her wherever she goes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever I can get a room, I get a room. In the car \u2014 we eat, we sleep, we talk to each other,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her one request of BAE Systems is simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to know what\u2019s going on. I want to know why it blew. Why it was his time to go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A fast food restaurant parking lot in St. Augustine is where Elizabeth Higgins goes to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":890710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,274202,3188,723,7310,25530,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-890709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-bae-systems","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-jacksonville","tag-st-augustine","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116808186980730021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}