Three arrested in connection with ‘backtrack’ deaths

THE DEAD AND MISSING

The police in Berbice are working closely with their Suriname counterparts to ascertain the circumstances surrounding the deaths by drowningdeaths by drowning deaths of two Guyanese while another person remains missing.

The trio left Nickerie in neighbouring Suriname in a small vessel to enter Guyana via a backtrack route at number 63 Beach on the Corentyne.

Authorities in Suriname have since confirmed that three persons have been detained in connection with the horrific incident. These include the captain of the vessel, a taxi driver and another man.

However the captain has since admitted to leaving the three passengers on a sandbank but there are claims that he had no idea it was several feet away from shore.

The man is said to have told investigators that he returned to the location to make checks after he was told that the passengers did not arrive but there were no signs of them so he left.

The bodies recovered so far are that of 75 year old Baboni Harihar of number 2 village East Canje Berbice whose body was found at number 69 village foreshore and Alvin Joseph of number 65 village on the Corentyne whose body was discovered at the number 60 forshore on the Corentyne.

Still missing is 48 year old Sharida Hussein of Pilot Street, New Amsterdam. The police and Guyana Defence Force Coast Guard have since conducted searches along the Corentyne foreshore on Thursday but came up empty handed.

However, Hussein’s handbag containing her personal documents has since been found by the police locally.

Hussein’s 19 year- old son Joshua Samarootold police that he received  a cellphone called from his mother at  about 19:30 hours on Monday.

He related that was told that she was returning to Guyana via boat and that he should pick her up at the number 63 beach.

However, moments later he received another phone call from his mother who was panicking at the time and she informed him that she along with two other passengers were placed on a sandbank and that she had no idea where she was as the area was dark. She also told him that the water was at her waist level before the hang up the phone.

Samaroo later tried to make contact with his mother but his calls went unanswered.