An 11-year-old boy known in the Parfaite Harmonie community for both his pranks and helpfulness was yesterday found hanging from a beam in his bedroom.
Dead is former St. Agnes Primary School student Marcelio Gladstone, who was found at his Lot 4265 Westminster, Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara home after 7pm on Friday evening by his mother.
The woman, Marcia Walton, recounted that upon opening the boy’s bedroom door, she was greeted by the sight of the child hanging from a support beam in the roof with an extension cord around his neck.
She told Stabroek News that she went to check on the lad after she had finished cooking supper. He had complained about being hungry earlier.
“He came and asked when the food was going to finish and I told him he has to hold on, because the gas had finished and it was the kerosene stove I was using and it would take a while.
He said, ‘okay’ and I told him ‘go rest lil and when it finish I will call you,’” she said.
“When I done, I sent his sister to wake him ’cause I called and he didn’t answer, and she told me come see what he do. I thought maybe some mischief, so I sent his other sister to tell me and she screamed and said mommy come, he hang heself and I thought was joke. But it wasn’t, he was already dead,” she added.
Walton said that the boy did not exhibit any signs that he was suicidal, like depression. She added that he was not bullied, molested or abused at home. “He is not a child like that. He was willing, always willing.
He was the only boy and took on roles such as helping bring in sand and earth and anything we wanted him to do he did smiling,” she said.
The boy’s death opened an old wound for the family as Gladstone’s 21-year-old half-brother had committed suicide in January of this year. He was found hanging by his father the same way as Gladstone at his residence.
Police have stated that they are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the boy’s death. They said that on Friday about 7.30 he was found hanging in his bedroom from a piece of rope tied to the roof. An autopsy will be performed on the lad’s body tomorrow.
