The body of nine-year-old Imani Leech was on Monday retrieved from Kara Kara Creek at Mackenzie, Linden, following a search led by residents of the neighbouring Speightland community.
Leech went missing after he fell into a section of the Kara Kara Creek in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) on Saturday.
His partially decomposed body was discovered floating in a section of the Creek at approximately 12:30h on Monday after residents who formed a search party ventured out by boat on the waterway. Following the discovery, Police visited the location and removed the body, which was then transported to a mortuary in the Linden community.
Guyana Times International understands that Leech, who recently moved with his mother to the Lower Kara Kara, Speightland area, was sitting on a wooden bridge at the Creek with his mother and other relatives sometime after midday on Saturday when he “slipped” into the waterway.
Relatives told this publication that the child’s aunt, who was sitting next to him, had grabbed his hand, resulting in both slipping into the creek. However, efforts to save the duo only resulted in the child’s aunt being saved.
“He was on the bridge and he foot get slip and he aunty hold he and all two of them go out together. Plenty people went in the water (searching), because we shout for people. That’s the reason why the aunty get saved,” a female relative had indicated.
Searches were conducted for the child by residents and Police thereafter, but yielded no results until Monday’s tragic discovery.
“People came and they searched and they say that when the water settle, they will go back and search. Other than that, nothing. We went back and we ain’t see he,” the child’s aunt had told this newspaper.
Following the incident on Saturday, the child’s mother, who is a Police Officer, wept uncontrollably.
At the scene on Monday, a resident noted that it was “a very sad day” for the community. The child’s mother travelled to Georgetown on Monday to make funeral arrangements. The now deceased child was a Grade Five student of the Regma Primary School in Linden.
