The body was later identified as Victor Austin, 79, of Durban Street. According to Pamela Griffith-Patrick, the man’s youngest daughter, she had last seen her father on Tuesday night after he left her house. Griffith-Patrick said that no one suspected anything such as this when her father was not heard from because everybody was supposing that he was at some other relative’s place. She explained that her father had only three days ago moved to a cousin’s on Durban Street.
According to Griffith-Patrick, she had escorted her father earlier on Tuesday to get his picture re-taken for his identification card and they had returned to her James Street, Albouystown home. At 9.20 she said her father left. That was the last time she had heard from him.
Meanwhile, Melisha Skeete, the deceased’s grand daughter, said that she was at work yesterday when a colleague came in and said that a body was found in the Sussex Canal. Skeete said she asked the woman to describe and when she realised that the description matched that of her grandfather she called her aunt, Pamela, and told her to go check it out.
Griffith –Patrick said that while she was prevented from seeing the body, Skeete’s husband noticed scratches on the man’s neck. She said there was also a laceration to his arm but was not sure whether it was from him being in the water so long or if foul play was involved. She further said that her father’s bicycle was also discovered in the canal.
The woman said she is not sure if it is a case that her father was hit by some vehicle and left in the canal or if he had taken ill and rode off the road. She says that they are now awaiting the results of a post-mortem examination to know what caused her father’s demise.
Victor Austin, who was a retired engineer, was described as a “very quiet, very cool, very loving” man. He leaves to mourn his wife Joan Oden and three children as well as grandchildren.
