The decomposing body of 18-year-old Jermaine ‘Kevin’ Anthony of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice who was missing at sea since Sunday afternoon was found around 2 pm yesterday at the No 4 Village foreshore.
He reportedly disappeared in the rough waters near the D’ Edward sluice and his remains will be laid to rest this morning.
His mother, Meenakumarie had told Stabroek News that she was with persons at the D’ Edward sluice yesterday when fishermen came in with a boat and said that a body was floating in the water.
She said they left immediately and when she saw the body she suspected that her son was a victim of foul play and called for justice.
Her son, who was staying at Cotton Tree with his reputed wife, Kameal Mohamed, 20 “did not know how to swim.” She lamented that “he dead and gone… and young boys who do not know to swim should take example from this and do not do such a job.”
The woman was told that he fell overboard while he was on a fishing boat assisting his father-in-law.
But his reputed wife told this newspaper yesterday that he was not in the boat when the accident occurred and that her father told her he “slipped on the concrete and fell” overboard.
She said he had gone with her father to the koker to load the boat in preparation for a trip the following morning.
At the time, she said they were tying up the boat.
Her father jumped into the water in an effort to save him and they were “holding onto each other.” The teen also held on to the man’s shirt.
Kameal said her father, who is big built could not swim with his shirt and had to release it.
Her father also told her that the two of them were going down and that Anthony “pushed him up back.”
Meenakumarie who had told this newspaper too that she was receiving conflicting information about how her son met his demise, learnt that his father-in-law had also fallen overboard.
The woman said the sluice door was reportedly open and that the lad disappeared in the rough waters. She heard that persons started searching in vain for him.
She said that in an emergency situation, the door should have been closed immediately, to facilitate the search. It was not closed until 9 pm.
Kameal who started living with Anthony in March and is five months pregnant said they moved to her parents’ home about three weeks ago.
He went out to sea on two occasions with her father and said he “could manage the work.”
The young couple was working at a hardware store at Bath Settlement. On the day of his disappearance he took fish for his mother and she warned him about the risk of working at sea.
He promised her that he would quit and that he would return to his job at the store from Monday.
