… woman drowns, disabled daughter clings to life for hours on weeds

By Clifford Stanley
THE body of a 44-year-old woman was Tuesday afternoon fished out of the sideline trench at Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice where she and her thirteen-year-old daughter had gone to bathe late Monday afternoon.

The dead woman has been identified as Nazmoon Majeed also known as Do Do of Lot 651, Referendum City Bath Settlement. Her daughter Sally who has several disabilities was found Monday night clinging to some aquatic weeds in the trench, very much alive and apparently none the worse for the ordeal.

Zairoon Rahim, the dead woman’s sister, said that she had left home around 1700hrs Monday afternoon with her daughter to bathe her in the trench some distance away from the home. “The child likes this bathing in the water and my sister used to take her there almost every afternoon,” the woman said. “Is her regular routine. Me ain’t know how she drowned now,” she added.

Rahim said that around 8pm members of the family became disturbed after her sister had not returned home with the child. They alerted neighbours who formed a search party and eventually found the child who cannot walk without assistance clinging to aquatic weeds in the middle of the trench, very much alive and apparently none the worse for the ordeal.

They continued searching for the mother throughout Monday night and yesterday and eventually found her body around 1730 hrs. Relatives said that her body did not have any visible marks of violence.

A post mortem examination is expected to be performed today. Police are investigating.

Meanwhile neighbours expressed concern about the future of the thirteen-year-old. “This child was born like that and cannot do anything for herself. The mother used to take care of her. Now that she is gone this child will be in a very vulnerable situation,” one concerned resident said. She expressed hopes that the Social Services Ministry would intervene very quickly to take care of the handicapped girl.