Post-mortem results on the remains of Scottish Project Trust teacher, Pamela McCarroll, 18, who was attached to the St. Ignatius Primary School, proved that she suffered multiple injuries as a result of a fall.
Arrangements are being made to fly the body back to her hometown on Monday, according to John Fraser, Overseas Director of the Scottish-based charitable trust.
Fraser who arrived in the country from the UK told Stabroek News that the Lyken’s Funeral Home is handling the remains.
The incident reportedly occurred around 2 pm on Sunday at the Tutuwau Falls, South Central Rupununi where McCarroll had gone sightseeing in the company of a friend. Police reports are that she “was rock climbing when she fell and sustained injuries.”
The Science teacher was subsequently pronounced dead by medical personnel from the Lethem Regional Hospital.”
Fraser was very grateful to “the police and everyone else involved and I want to thank them and the people of Lethem; they were very helpful.”
He described her as a “very hardworking and fun-loving” person who never missed work. “She was somebody who was making a positive contribution to education,” he said.
McCarroll who came to Guyana last September was planning to study medicine on her return to Scotland. Her parents Peter and Dr. Sheila McCarroll are said to be “devastated” by her death.
According to information on McCarroll’s Bebo.com webpage, she was fond of outdoor activities such as mountain biking, sailing, skiing, boarding. Her friends have been posting messages expressing sorrow at her passing on the webpage, at the top of which she had written the words “whatever happens, happens.”
Project Trust in a statement said it regrets the death of McCarroll and that its thoughts are with her family, friends and “fellow volunteers at this difficult time.”
The statement said that “there are several high hills in the vicinity and we understand that she slipped and fell to the bottom of a cliff. We believe her death was instantaneous.”
It said too that “she was an admirable teacher, very conscientious and hard working. She lived in a little house on the school premises with her fellow volunteer… They were due to leave in August 2008 when they would have seen their pupils through the Guyana school leaving exam, CXC.”
Project Trust, whose headquarters are in the Isle of Coll in the Inner Hebrides, was set up to enable young people to experience life in a different community, learn about its culture and help where they can.
The trust which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year has sent over 5,500 young people abroad to fifty six countries.
