He also said that it was two bags, with one containing the rotting remains. He didn’t report it at the time because he wasn’t sure what it was. There was also a mask, a pair of gloves, a spoon, a fork, a small bowl and checkered pants in another bag. Given that the pants were similar to the one he was wearing when he was last seen, relatives believe that the bag contained the remains of 10-year-old Ricky, the boy missing since a boat collision in the Essequibo River almost four months ago.
“If is the pants or the bone, it gon be a closure for me”, Ricky’s mother, Salimoon Rahaman said yesterday. She had initially planned to visit the island yesterday but was told that the tides would have covered the spot where the bags were seen and there is the possibility that it could have been washed away. She revealed that the hunter said that he did not make a close check because of the state of the remains. “If I see the pants I gon know”, she added. “If I see the pants I gon be satisfied and I gon know that he (Ricky) is not alive”.
Since the incident, during which two other men died, Rahaman has been on a relentless search for her son with no success. Ricky’s father, Jainarine Dinanauth, 45, and a family friend, Henry Gibson, 45, died in the August 11 incident. That evening, the three were heading to Hog Island in the Essequibo River. The bodies of the two men were discovered in the shattered boat the next morning but there was no sign of Ricky. Rahaman said that on the day her son left, he was wearing short ‘cargo’ checkered pants.
Relatives believe that rogue coast guards were involved in the incident and up to now it is not clear how it occurred. Rahaman had scoured the Essequibo in search of her son in the weeks following the incident but her searches failed to yield any sign of the lad. Relatives believe the rogue coast guards were involved and had rammed the boat, robbed the men and killed them. An investigation by the Maritime Administration Department had found blue paint on the green Coast Guard vessel. And there were green paint marks on the blue and white boat that the trio was in. Persons had also reported that in the days following August 11, the Coast Guard boat was dry-docked for three days and there were reports that a section had been painted over. A Guyana Defence Force investigation was “inconclusive” but it did find that the Coast Guard boat was in the river at the same time as the boat the trio was in. The blue paint samples from the Coast Guard boat were handed over to the police for testing. It is not clear if this has been completed as yet. The file on the matter was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
