By Shakisa Harvey
The lifeless body of 14-year-old Kelly Hope, of Wilson Street, Victoria, East Coast Demerara, was found in a clump of mangrove bushes along the shores of the Victoria Seawall yesterday, a day and a half after he went missing.
The tragedy is believed to have occurred after Hope went swimming in the company of five friends around his age at the Victoria koker, where children of the community regularly gather, usually without the knowledge or permission of their parents.
However, according to Hope’s father, Leonard, some of the young men were claiming that Hope had not gone swimming with them, while the others said they went to the koker to bathe. They were all being questioned by police at a station up to yesterday afternoon.
While relatives and residents in the area alleged foul play, Leonard Hope said he could not be sure of what exactly happened.
“I can’t say who went with him for sure because I was not there. And I can’t say if he jump overboard or if somebody push he. These boys would know. But somebody had to be with him ‘cause he wouldn’t go alone. A next pair of trunks and slippers were found there too. And according to information we get, a girl said Monday afternoon she see a set of lil boys running in the area, so she said something happen,” Leonard explained.
Leonard said that his son is not a swimmer and his family is not aware that he frequented the koker, so the seawalls was the last place in his mind to look for Kelly, who he last saw on Monday afternoon. It was only after one of the boy’s friends visited his home bearing his bike and with news of his son’s clothing being found at the koker that his family decided to search there. Since the discovery of the bike and clothing on Tuesday, Hope’s friend had been trying to contact Hope’s family, Leonard said.
Stabroek News learnt that the boy’s body was subsequently discovered several feet away from the pump around 7:45 yesterday morning, after a search party scanned the shores in search of him.
Hope was last seen by his father around 4:30 pm on Monday, when he left home with the bike saying he was going to visit his mother at the shop where she sells.
“However, when I went on the road to the mother, she said, ‘Kelly didn’t come there,’” Leonard explained.
“When I left the bakery and went to the station Tuesday morning to tell them Kelly missing, they told me 24 hours ain’ meet yet. And now they don’t want me to see my son. I need to see him to identify him,” a distraught Donna Clarke-Hope screamed at their home.
Leonard described his son as very playful and fond of riding around the village.
Hope, months shy of his fifteenth birthday, was a student at the Golden Grove Secondary School. He was the youngest of five siblings.
