The body of an unidentified man was found in the Lower Kara Kara creek in Linden early yesterday morning.
The man, who was of African descent, was not known to residents of the area who suspected that he may have drowned at another location before being washed further down stream by the heavy current of the black water creek. Marks of violence were not apparent on the body.
The discovery was made by a family that had gone to the creek for an early morning bath. Verna Lorrimer’s husband, Mark Jeffery, her son, Marvin Jeffery and her granddaughter, Roshana Knights, left their Speightland, Lower Kara Kara home shortly after 7 yesterday morning for a bath at the nearby creek. “My husband usually work out of the area and is normal when he come back that they would go to the creek in the mornings to bathe,” she explained. The woman said soon after her son returned home breathless telling her, “a dead man in deh creek.” The police were immediately summoned and an alarm was raised.
Mark Jeffrey, in relating the discovery, told his wife that as they reached the creek, Marvin pointed to a shirt which was spread out on some brambles in the water. Upon examination of his son’s find, the man realised that it was a body in the water.
The body, which was floating face down, was clad in black pants and a brown shirt that might have been discoloured by the water and a single boot. The other side of the boot was trapped next to the body. The man appeared to be in his late forties or early fifties, based on the sighting of what appeared to be grey hair. However, persons at the scene said that he might be younger since the dark brown water might have resulted in the discoloration of his hair. A search of the man’s clothing uncovered sixty dollars and an empty pink and white plastic bag.
Clement Cornelius, a resident of Speightland Lower Kara Kara, who helped bring the body to a landing, approximately 40ft to 50ft from where it was entangled, said that the man might have drowned a day before. His assumption was based on the condition of the body, which was beginning to show signs of swelling.
Residents believed the man might have drowned further up the creek and washed down to the Lower Kara Kara area, since he was not known by anyone in the tight knit Speightland community. “Looking at the theory that he might have been killed and put there, I would rule that out totally,” a resident said. “No one here knows him. We never see him here before. He ain’t had no marks of violence or nothing,” added Cornelius.
The body was taken to the Upper Demerara/Wismar Hospital Mortuary while police continued to try to identify the man.
