Two women and a man are now missing after they were dropped off on a “sand bank” located at Number 63 Beach late Monday evening. They were enroute to Guyana from Suriname.
Missing are Sherida Hussain also known as ‘Sherry’, 49, of Lot 274 Pilot Street, New Amsterdam; Babuni Harihar, also known as ‘Doris’, 75, of Number Two Village, East Canje Berbice; and Alwin Joseph, originally from Betsy Ground Village, East Canje Berbice, who has been residing in Suriname for over twenty years.
Commander of Region Six, Senior Superintendent Jairam Ramlakhan, yesterday told Stabroek News, that an investigation has been launched. He said the coast guard has been contacted and a patrol vessel activated from New Amsterdam, while a boat and engine was activated for a search with ranks and relatives of the missing persons.
Further, Ramlakhan informed that he has contacted counterparts in Suriname, who are assisting with the investigation and search at their end.
A senior source in Suriname confirmed that they are in contact with Ramlakhan and that efforts were being made to locate the boat and captain.
According to Hussain’s son, Joshua Samaroo, 17, his mother phoned him on Monday around 7.30 pm and told him that the boat which she boarded in Suriname enroute to Guyana put them off on a “sand bank” at Number 63 Beach.
He said, the woman, who ventured to Suriname in November to visit relatives, told him that they were surrounded by waist-height water. “She was saying that they’re off at some bank and the water is up to her waist.” She also said that she couldn’t see land.
Samaroo immediately filed a police report and rushed to the Number 63 Beach from New Amsterdam, where he and relatives began searching.
However, after they did not find anyone, they spent the night in Springlands and continued searching yesterday morning, after which the police later joined them later in the day for another search.
As of 2.30 pm yesterday, ranks were forced to call off the search due to the tide, Samaroo noted.
Meanwhile, the young man yesterday told Stabroek News, that he is holding out hope that they find his mother alive. He said she was a single parent who raised him to be the man he is today.
Meanwhile, Harihar’s granddaughter, Nadira Valdez, yesterday said, that around 9 pm on Monday evening her relatives in Suriname informed her that her grandmother would be returning home.
According to the woman, her grandmother visited Suriname in December after her cousin was pregnant and they were celebrating a birthday.
She stated, “When I called my brother-in-law he told me that he going and look for her, that my aunty called and say she is not getting on to granny phone anymore.”
She said her relatives then met Samaroo’s and Joseph’s relatives at the location conducting a search.
“The other lady [Hussain] that was with my grandmother called her son and told him that they surrounded by water and they not seeing any land,” an emotional Valdez said yesterday as she hugged a post.
Valdez, who will be celebrating her birthday today, noted that she last spoke to her grandmother on Sunday and the woman told her that she missed home and would be returning soon.
Further, she said, her grandmother also stated that the boat she traveled over to Suriname with “got hold up” and she would return with another boat “but in the night.”
The young woman said she advised her grandmother not to travel at night.
Valdez yesterday stressed, that she is also hopeful that they would find her grandmother alive.
Meanwhile, Joseph’s cousin, Narinee Shamsundar, said she last spoke to her cousin on Monday evening around 7 pm when he told her that he would be heading to Guyana. “When abe here he drop off and abe send to pick he up, abe na get through with he,” she said.
She continued, “He called my brother and told him that he reach and my brother called and he say them just drop he off a 63 Beach but when abe send fa look for them abe na find him.”
The woman noted that Joseph would often travel to Guyana and has a wife and child in Suriname.
The police and coast guard have since asked the families to identify one relative each that would accompany them on another search this morning.
