Another fisherman found dead, two still missing
Dead: Lamar Petrie
Dead: Lamar Petrie

By Nafeeza Yahya

THE body of 20-year-old Lamar Otto Petrie was discovered on the Abary foreshore in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) on Sunday afternoon.

Missing: Vishnu Seeram called ‘Kevin’

Petrie was among four fishermen who went missing in the Corentyne River last week and is the second of the group of men to have been found dead. The two others remain missing.

Petrie, who was on his maiden journey to the high seas hoping to provide for his family, was found with his hands and feet bound. His body also bore several marks of violence.
According to police sources, the body of the 20-year-old was discovered sometime around noon but it took investigators several hours to retrieve it.

At the funeral parlour, where Petrie’s body was subsequently taken, his mother, Onika Simon, wailed bitterly. From a distance, she recognised him from the green shirt he was wearing.

The 40-year-old woman recalled that it was the same shirt Petrie was wearing when he left their Miss Pheobe home on October 5 around 05:30hrs.

Dead: Kawal Kissoon called ‘Ajay’

While wailing uncontrollably, the mother of six recalled that her son had his full life ahead of him, and for his life to be snuffed out like this was cruel and unjustified.
“He is just 20 years old; he don’t have a wife or child nor even a girlfriend…He now starting to live life, he went out to go work and earn an honest dollar, now them kill he just like that…it wrong,” Simon said as she swept bitterly.

Petrie, the eldest of Simon’s six children, was described as a very responsible individual. He did several jobs including selling Cotton Candy and Popcorn from Skeldon to New Amsterdam, just to earn money to support himself and family.

According to his mother, Petrie fished for a while with boat owners under the Canje Bridge. He would usually set seine in the mouth of the Berbice River but never ventured into international waters. On Thursday, October 3, he was approached by the captain of the vessel, Vishnu Seeram, and being jobless at the time, he decided to take the opportunity.

He informed his mother on Friday, October 4 and spoke to her before he left on Saturday morning for the private wharf at Number 65 Village, East Berbice-Corentyne. He and the other fishermen were destined for the Surinamese waters in the Sara One vessel.

Meanwhile, relatives of the two other fishermen, Vishnu Seeram called “Kevin” of Lot 76, Miss Phoebe, and Marvin Tamessar called “Buddy” of Lot 305, Miss Phoebe, Mourant, are praying and hoping for a miracle.

Missing: Marvin Tamessar

They told the Guyana Chronicle they will not rest until their relatives are found.
Shamwattie Inderjeet, the mother of Seeram, said she had pleaded with her son not to go out to the high seas but he insisted as he was indebted to his boss, Ramesh Hardial.
“He said ‘mommy, I got to go because I owe the man and me gah pay him off’. I even tell he, I gon help with the money, but he keep insisting to go, so me let him go with a heavy heart. Now me don’t know if he alive or if I will ever see him again,” she told this newspaper.

Inderjeet, along with relatives of the other missing man, has been combing the beaches along East Berbice-Corentyne.
When they received a call saying another body was found in Abary in similar manner as that of 36-year-old Kawal Kissoon called ‘Ajay,’ Inderjeet decided to stay back, noting that she could not bear to see her first-born in that state.

Kissoon, like Petrie, was found with both his hands and feet tied and marks of violence about his body. His face was badly decomposed and was identified by a tattoo on his arm that read ‘King.’

The four-man crew left on October 5, 2019, destined for Surinamese waters, and was scheduled to return around October 19. The bodies of Kissoon and Petrie were some 60 kilometers away from where the boat ‘Sara One’ was found abandoned with the engine and catch missing.

Police are working with Surinamese authorities as they hope they can get some answers as to what really transpired and try to bring those responsible to justice.

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