The body of second-year University of Guyana (UG) student Harris Anthony Persaud, who had been missing for two days, was yesterday afternoon discovered at the foreshore at Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara.
Persaud, 19, a second year Civil Engineering student of UG and of Lot 21 Granny Field, Cane Grove, East Coast Demerara, was last seen alive on Wednesday with two friends, who are now being held by police.
The discovery was made by his relatives, who had formed a search party following his disappearance.
Persaud was seen leaving the UG Turkeyen Campus around midday on Wednesday and reportedly journeyed to the apartment of his two friends, with whom he was seen entering a car. They reportedly travelled to the Kingston seawall, behind the Marriott Hotel, to swim.
The two friends were arrested on Thursday afternoon for questioning and remained in custody up to late last evening.
Under questioning, they told the police that while they were swimming a wave washed Persaud away. They said they subsequently disposed of his belongings along the East Coast Demerara railway embankment road.
Relatives and friends of Persaud gathered in their numbers outside the Guyana Defence
Force (GDF) facility at Garden of Eden after receiving news of the discovery of his body behind it. Sunita Persaud, his mother, told Stabroek News that her fears grew on Wednesday evening after her son did not return home and night was approaching. “He don’t normally stay out late and sleep out and so, so I know something was wrong,” she noted.
She said several calls were made to Persaud’s cellular phone, all of which went unanswered. As a result, his father along with other relatives began a search. “They went to H. Nauth and Sons where he (Anthony) does do a part-time job and the guards tell my husband that he did not turn up to work,” the grieving woman noted. This, she said, she found very strange, since Anthony would usually go to work after classes on most days.
In a bid to find her son, Sunita said the family printed flyers, which were placed at various locations around the country.
Sunita said family members searched every location he could have possibly been but their efforts were in vain up until yesterday afternoon. She said they decided to search on the Kingston seawall Thurs-day. During this time, the two friends who were arrested were also present with her husband. “Is when they reach behind Marriott, one of the friend who went sit down in the car start holler and my husband ask them what happen and he said that they and Persaud went swimming and a wave pull him in and he disappear,” Sunita explain-ed. “I don’t know why my son would go swim and he can’t swim,” she said.
Sunita said she was not aware of any problems Persaud may have been involved in that would lead anyone to harm him. “Those two boys are his best friends, they does come my house all,” she noted.
Persaud’s body was taken to the Lyken Funeral Parlour last evening for identification. A post-mortem examination is planned for early next week.
