The body of a 61-year-old fisherman has been pulled from a canal at Number 66 Village, Corentyne, Berbice on Tuesday afternoon.
Dead: Deonarine Balram, aka “Drakes”
The dead man has been identified as 61-year-old Deonarine Balram, called “Drakes”, of Number 65 Village, Corentyne, who was believed to be at sea. His body was discovered by a sluice attendant, who then informed others.
According to Balram’s sister, Maharanie Balram, he had left home on Monday at about 8:00h. She told the media that after packing his bag, Balram told them that he was going to work.
“He does call me husband ‘Uncle’. He said, ‘Uncle, take care’, and he give me $200, and my brother left and gone,” Maharanie Balram recounted.
However, the dead man’s niece, Amrita Hemraj, has said that her uncle did not go to work. She said workers reported that he was seen on a boat long after the scheduled departure of the vessel.
“He stayed on the boat. He did not come back home. Some people passed and they saw him like about 11:00h sitting on the boat. So, we don’t know what time this occurred, if it was in the evening or in the night; we don’t know,” she explained.
Balram, a father of one, is said to have spent much of his spare time on fishing boats that are moored at the wharf; he even sometimes slept there.
According to Hemraj, all of the relatives of the late Deonarine Balram reside at Number 65 Village, so it was not difficult to get the news to all relatives within a short period of time.
“He was stuck in the mud, so we don’t know if he fell into the mud, or he drown in the water and the water took him there; we don’t know,” the niece continued her narrative, while noting that family members were surprised to see a private funeral home coming to uplift the body, since they did not call them.
The body was taken to the Skeldon Hospital Mortuary, but officials there reportedly told the family that such cases are not kept at the morgue.
“They are very poor people. When he works at sea, he would normally drink, and he don’t give anybody any savings,” his niece pointed out.
Family members could not say whether there were marks of violence on the body, but noted that aquatic creatures had seemingly been feasting on the corpse.
