DOMITRI Reis, 23, who was mentally ill, met a gruesome and tragic end early yesterday morning when the dilapidated and abandoned wooden house he was sleeping under collapsed crushing him to death.

Speaking to this publication yesterday afternoon, the mother of the deceased, Jennifer Curry-Hoppie said that she woke up to the news yesterday morning and is still in a state of shock but could not bear to see the broken

and bloodied body of her son at the scene.
She explained that two years ago her child went to the interior to work, and while there she received the news that he ‘run mad’ and shortly after he returned home early one morning and she noticed a strange change in his behaviour.

Not long after, Curry-Hoppie said her loved one’s behaviour took a turn for the worst in which he became violent and even attacked her spouse during a quarrel, and when they took him for treatment at the Georgetown Hospital Corporation (GPHC) Psychiatric Department he exited the place.

The woman admitted that Reis used to ‘smoke’ but was unsure what substance he abused but was not ‘mad’ in anyway. However, he used to act out sometimes in a very violent manner when they quarrelled with him to seek treatment, the mother explained.

To avoid their talk, he left home and began residing at the home of several relatives including his sister and an aunt, after which he began to occupy empty and abandoned houses in the Beterverwagting area until he was killed.

He was occupying a wooden cottage at Lot 99 Paul’s Lane, Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara, when it collapsed fatally crushing him in the process.

Relatives told this publication that Reis was trapped under the house still wrapped up in his bed sheet while his hammock was tied up inside the house.

Residents in the street said that they heard the loud crashing noise at about 03:00 hrs yesterday during a heavy downpour but did not bother to investigate and it was until daylight the body was spotted by passersby and they were alerted.

Ms. Curry-Hoppie said her son was intelligent and used to reside in Canada with his father but he misbehaved and was sent back to Guyana but always expressed his desire to return to that country of which he was a citizen.

She added that he would walk from Beterverwagting to the city to the Canadian Embassy where he went to speak to officials there in an effort to return to Canada. He had even renewed his passport and was expected to travel, when he began behaving rather strangely saying certain things that were not ordinary.

Before Reis started to experience mental problems he was a labourer and did many jobs in that village until he changed two years ago and began roaming but would be supplied with meals and grocery items, which he cooked whenever he wanted to.
Reis, was the fourth of six children and was unmarried with no children.

His relatives said when he was in his right senses he would carry on a normal conversation but left home on his own accord to be away from his family because they used to tell him to reform and wanted him to seek treatment for his condition, all of which he refused.

(By Michel Outridge)