A normal weekend outing for a group of friends turned into a tragedy, when one of the five friends drowned while bathing at Alness Beach, Alness Village, East Berbice Corentyne.

Gopaul Govindan called ‘Raj,’ 19, a Dental Assistant employed with Condenslpy Dental Lab of Alness Village, was pronounced dead on arrival at Port Mourant Hospital after his body was recovered five hours after on the Manchester Foreshore, two villages away on Sunday, March 12.

His father, Arjune Govindan, of Lot 112 Alness Village, told Guyana Chronicle that Raj left home at around 14:00 with some friends to go to the beach, which is located a short distance from their home and promised to return home by 16:30hrs.

“They would usually go out there to bush cook or play games and bathe almost every weekend, before he left his mother told him every week you gonna go out there man , why you don’t stay home but he said he will be back,” the distraught father said.

He recalled that he was at home when someone called at the gate to relate the dreadful news of his son’s demise.

“Just after 4 someone came and said Gopaul gone down in the water and can’t come up back so I dropped my wife out (to the street) and I went out to the beach there was a lot of people there already but there’s nothing we could have done, the tide was really high; we had to wait until the water go down.”

Residents and family members subsequently formed a search party in a bid to locate his son but it was futile.

“We searched and swim around the location his body went down but could not find him and as the water went down further we decided to search the seashore.”

It was just after 20:30hrs on Sunday night when his lifeless body was discovered face down two villages away on the Foreshore at Manchester Village.

In tears, the father described his third child as a jovial and willing person who was loved by everyone and shared a strong bond with his family.

“Earlier in the day, he took his sister to the market to buy supplies to celebrate phagwah today (Monday)…He promised to take her out to play today…We will miss him a lot,” the tearful father said.

The young man leaves to mourn his parents and three siblings.