A 13-year-old school boy of Bumbury Hill, North West District on Tuesday committed suicide at his grandmother’s home, sending shockwaves across the quiet, indigenous neighbourhood.

Dead is Nicholas Cyrus, of Hosororo Primary School, Region 1.  His lifeless body was found in his grandmother’s room with a belt tied around his neck, shortly after noon.
Information coming out of the region said that during his lunch break, the teen left the school compound and together with two other lads, walked about one mile to the home of his grandmother who lives in the same yard with his mother.  His mother, who is employed as a cook with the school’s feeding programme, was not at home at the time.
According to his grandmother, when Nicholas arrived at her home, he told her that he wanted something to eat. The woman said that she informed him that she had not yet finished cooking, but would try to get him something.  She quickly fried an egg and placed it on some cooked rice and called out to him, signalling that it was ready.  But she got no reply. She said she went up into the house with the food but he was not in the living room.  She continued calling, and after she still did not get a response, ventured into the bedroom, feeling that he was tired and resting.
To her horror, the grandmother found Nicholas in a slumped position, with a belt tightly tied about his neck.  He was already dead.
Relatives are baffled as to why the boy killed himself.
Meanwhile, another family member is trying to make the connection with the fact that his father, Clive Romascindo, about two years ago, committed suicide at Parika, by hanging himself.  Then about three weeks ago, another  relative, Agnel Romascindo, also hanged himself .  His body was found  near   the Tennessee recreational park at Hosororo.
And about six months ago, another lad, also from Bumbury Hill, took his life in a similar manner over a family dispute, in which he claimed that his family had wronged him.
Nicholas Cyrus’s suicide has brought to four the number of hanging deaths to have taken place in the last two years in his community.
Concerned about such developments, residents of the Mabaruma Sub-Region are  calling for counselling and empowerment sessions, as well as workshops on suicide to be put in place to benefit the young people there.