THE decomposing and bloated body of a 14-year-old lad, who had been reported missing since Monday, was found at the Victoria foreshore, East Coast Demerara, yesterday.

The corpse of Kelly Hope, of Wilson Street, Victoria, who had left his home riding a bicycle, was wrapped and placed in a hearse which took it away to await a post-mortem and further investigations.
Father of the deceased, Leonard Hope, told the Guyana Chronicle that his last child departed the house on Monday around 16:15 hrs, stating that he was going to Victoria Public Road to help his bread vendor mother.
But he did not visit his mother’s vending location and it was dark when they began enquiring of his whereabouts after he failed to return.
A search was started, but did not yield results on Monday and it was continued on Tuesday as they had perceived something was not right, since it was not usual for the teen to stay away overnight.
Hope said a boy from the village told his wife that he had gone to the seawall to look for his son but  came up only with his clothes.
Consequently, they resumed searching and someone else was seen with the missing teenager’s bicycle.

GONE SWIMMING
A report was made to the police after which Hope’s friends, about six of them his age group, were held for questioning and it was revealed that they all had gone swimming at the seawall on Monday but none could say what happened to him.
Family members and others decided to go to the Victoria Seawall and a relative made the discovery of the deceased, clad in underwear alone lying face up among the mangrove about 600 feet from the sea defence near the drainage pump.
Hope’s father said the body was swollen, had a wound on the neck, oozing blood and in a state of decomposition.
The dead child was the last of five siblings and a student of Golden Grove Secondary School, on the East Coast of Demerara.