Man dies after plunging into West Demerara conservancy

Canal Number One Polder residents hauled the body of a man from the conservancy a short time after he plunged into the black water yesterday afternoon.

Junior McCollin, a 22-year-old carpenter of Parfait Harmonie, was already dead when he was pulled from the water. The man, residents told Stabroek News, had gone to the conservancy with a group of friends to swim.

“This is a usual thing yuh know… everybody does go and swim at de back there,” a woman, who declined to have her name published, said.

The woman said that McCollin worked with a family in the area and would normally spend weekend afternoons in the area with other men his age. McCollin, she recalled, had been talking with his friends a short distance from his employer’s home before they left for the conservancy.

Some of the men who had been swimming with McCollin, the woman said, told her that the man plunged into the conservancy and never resurfaced. A search was immediately launched for him and a friend found McCollin’s body some time later. The body, according to her, was found around 3pm.

“Nobody coulda do nothing cause when dem pull he out he didn’t breathing,” the woman said.

When Stabroek News visited the area yesterday attendants from a West Demerara Funeral Home had already moved the body.

Police were also seen questioning several persons who were present when the incident occurred.

A man, who identified himself as the cousin of the deceased, said that he was informed of what had happened by one of McCollin’s friends. “They just call me and tell me how he plunge in the water and dem ain’t see he back and then they find he body… up to now his mother don’t know,” the cousin said.