A trip with friends to the canal at Hague Backdam went horribly wrong on Sunday, when a 17-year-old business student of Cornelia Ida, West Coast Demerara lost his life, reportedly by drowning.
A post-mortem examination is expected to be conducted today to determine if De John Ramnauth, a student of the Government Technical Institute, drowned.
His mother, Indranie Ramnauth, told Stabroek News that her son was fully clad in his jeans and t-shirt and still wearing his watch when his body was fished out of the canal shortly after he went missing.
She recalled that before she left home around 9.30 am, she had asked her son if he was going anywhere and he responded that he was not because he “had school work to do.”
She was shocked when she received the news later that afternoon about his demise. She later learnt from neighbours that some of his friends arrived at her home in a bus around 11 am and picked him up.
She said the friends told her that they were all swimming and De John, who could not swim, went out into the deep and disappeared. They told her that they started searching for him. However, this explanation does nor mesh with his fully clothed body being found.
The distraught woman said she has been receiving conflicting reports about the incident and did not know what to believe. There were also reports that the youth was pushed overboard for fun and that his friends did not realize that he was unable to swim.
Reports are that one of the friends, who does not have a driver’s licence, drove his father’s minibus and took them on the trip.
Ramnauth said the friends told her that De John was not supposed to go and she questioned why they went to pick him up.
She said sadly, “Even if he was pushed overboard, I would not know because the PM would show drowning.”
Police sources told this newspaper that the matter is currently being investigated.
