Berbice fatal canal crash: “I wouldn’t be with you all for the Christmas” – wife recalls husband’s words before death

The fisherman, whose lifeless body was on Saturday afternoon fished out of a canal at Babu Jaan, Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) after plunging into the canal while driving his vehicle at a fast rate of speed, told his wife a few days before his demise that he was not going to be with the family for Christmas.
His wife, Karel Woodruff, said he told her of his feelings last Thursday.
“He said something bad would happen to either he or one of his brothers but he didn’t know it was this. He said ‘Karel I wouldn’t be with you all for the Christmas’. He didn’t say he thought that he would die, he said he going to jail,” his wife of 18 years related.

Mitchell Benn, a father of three was expecting to go out to sea on Sunday morning after not being able to make it on time on Friday when the tide was high enough for the boat to sail out from the dock.
Police had reported that the 34-year-old was proceeding west along an access dam at Babu Jaan allegedly at a fast rate of speed when he lost control of the vehicle and ended up in a canal situated in a northwestern direction and submerged.
He was pulled from the vehicle in an unconscious condition and taken to the Port Mourant Public Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
His wife said that during the period the vehicle was submerged in the water she walked pass on more than one occasion and did not see it.
“Me passing he all the time but not thinking about looking in the canal because I was looking for his vehicle on the road. I did not look there not knowing that I passing Mitchell all the time.”
After the submerged vehicle was spotted and an alarm was raised, Woodruff said she went over and saw two of her husband’s friends at the scene.
“I told them to go and see if anybody in the vehicle and they were afraid. Nobody did not want to go in the water because they don’t want no problem with the police. I forced his friend Paul to go in to see if anybody inside the jeep… He opened the door and he put his head inside and tell me that nobody inside. I said, ‘Thank God.”
Woodruff then made her way to the Port Mourant Hospital.
Meanwhile, the now-dead man’s brother, who subsequently arrived on the scene explained that he immediately went into the water.
“When I look, I see him, his head alone showing in the water and I rush to him and turn him over…”
An autopsy conducted on Monday by Government Pathologist Dr Vivekanand Bridgemohan, gave the cause of death as a fractured cervical spine. (G4)