Some three days after going missing while on a tour at the Orinduik Falls in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) to celebrate his wife’s birthday, the body of 43-year-old Gladstone Haynes was found on Wednesday morning.
Haynes, whose address was given as Lot 164 Fourth Street, Alexander Village, Greater Georgetown, was an overseas-based Guyanese and an officer attached to the New York Police Department (NYPD) in Brooklyn, United States.
The man drowned sometime around 15:00h on Sunday while he and other tourists were at the popular waterfalls located in the North Pakaraimas, Region Eight.
According to the Guyana Police Force, Haynes and the mother of his children, Vanessa Alicia Vassell – a 34-year-old US citizen, along with other tourists, boarded a plane from the Eugene F Correia International Airport to do a tour of Kaieteur Falls and Orinduik Falls.
“Enquiries disclosed that [Haynes] was swimming below the Orinduik Falls in the water, which was high and streaming heavily at the time. He reportedly went under the surface of the water and disappeared,” police revealed.
Police ranks from the Orinduik Police Station were then informed and a search party comprising officers from both the Police Force and the Guyana Defence Force, along with other persons, began looking for the missing man. However, his body was not found immediately.
The search continued over the following days and was eventually found about 06:30h on Wednesday at the Orinduik Falls, where Haynes and his partner had gone to celebrate her birthday.
According to an article in the NY Daily News, Haynes joined the NYPD in 2005 and spent most of his career in the 70th Precinct. “He loved his job… He was a 17-year veteran. He always wanted to be a Police Officer, because his father was a Police Officer [in the Guyana Police Force],” a relative told the NY news entity.
Haynes lived in Brooklyn with his partner and three children, according to the article. On Tuesday, a NYPD spokesperson confirmed Haynes’ disappearance to the Daily News.
“We are assisting the State Department and local authorities with their investigation,” the spokesman indicated to the news agency.
