A 23-year-old worker at a company that produces concrete and brick pavers, masonry and retaining walls, died after becoming caught in a concrete mixer.

The victim, Zavarius “Zee” Philius, of Fort Myers, FL, had been working at Oldcastle Coastal in Lehigh Acres, FL, for only a few months.

While the cause of the fatality is still under investigation, news reports suggest that the mixer somehow became activated while Philius was working on or near it. It took rescuers about eight hours to recover his body.

Vickie Jones, who raised the young man, described him as a happy-go-lucky person who was always hugging people. She said Oldcastle Coastal had shut down its operations for several days in the week prior to her son’s death, “because of machinery malfunction or whatever. Now my son is dead. It’s more than a freak accident to me.”