13-yr-old girl, uncle drown at Rockstone

…during outing at Fish Festival

By Bhisham Mohamed

The 12th annual Rockstone Fish Festival ended abruptly on Sunday following the death of a teenager and her uncle, who are suspected to have drowned in the vicinity of Golden Beach in Region 10.
Dead are 13-year-old Yasha Prince of Bagotstown, East Bank Demerara and 50-year-old Gavin Moses, who resided on the West Coast of Demerara.
The 13-year-old was celebrating her birthday, and travelled to the fish festival to

celebrate with her family. Moses celebrated his birthday on Saturday.
Based on reports received, upon spending some time at the fish festival, the now

dead teenager and her uncle, along with other relatives, boarded a private boat at the Rockstone waterway and travelled to the Golden Beach to take a swim. The Golden Beach is about one mile from Rockstone.
After about an hour on the beach, Prince and two cousins, including Thalia Clarke, were diving in the water and suddenly drifted in the deeper part of the river. Clarke

told the Guyana Times that after she realized Prince and her sister were going down in the water, she went to assist, but only managed to save her sister. She explained that after she raised an alarm, her uncle Gavin Moses came to assist, but after pushing Prince onto shore, he went down, and was still missing up to late Sunday evening.
“We try to do CPR, but she was already dead…We rolled her over and start press

her stomach, but she remained motionless”, Clarke said.
Her uncle, she noted, reportedly called out to some guys who were close by, but they were unresponsive. She is of the belief that if the guys had come to their assistance, they would have managed to save the duo.
Anthony English, another patron who was at the beach, said he heard the screams and went to assist, but as he was doing so, the now missing man held on to him and was pulling him down into the water. As such, he had no alternative but to save himself. He said that the teenager was already dead, but the man never made it to shore.
Speaking with the Guyana Times, a health worker explained that she was at Rockstone waterfront when she received the message of the unfortunate incident.
She, along with members of the Rockstone Tourism Authority and police ranks, rushed to the area, where she saw Prince in a motionless state; and upon checking, there was no pulse.
However, the body of the teenager was taken to the Linden Hospital Complex, where doctors confirmed her death.