THREE persons in neighbouring Suriname were, on Wednesday, arrested as investigations continue into the #63 beach ‘backtrack’ mishap that left two persons dead and a third still missing.

Sources in Suriname have confirmed to the Guyana Chronicle, that the captain of the vessel, a helper and a relative of one of the victims were sought and arrested by Surinamese police on Wednesday.

The source revealed that the men told investigators that they dropped off the trio in the vicinity of the Number 63 beach on a sandbank and were making their way towards the shore with Alwin Joseph, the lone male assisting the two females, 77-year-old, Baboni Harihar and 48-year-old, Sharida Hussein.
They further stated that they saw the trio walking towards the beach and believed everything was satisfactory so they turned the boat back towards Nickerie, Suriname and left, unaware
that the trio were in any danger.

On Monday evening around 19:00 hours, a speedboat departed for Guyana with three passengers, Alwin Joseph, said to be in his 30s; a resident of both Guyana and Suriname,  Sharida Hussein,  48 , a mother of three from Pilot Street, New Amsterdam and 77-year-old, Baboni Harihar of Palmyra Village. The trio, upon arrival, notified relatives but a little while later Hussein called her youngest child in a fit of emotions, stating that they were in waist high water that was fast rising and unable to see land. Two days later the bodies of Joseph and Harihar were found washed up on the shoreline almost a mile apart, while the search for Hussein continues.

The police have since recovered in the vicinity of #70 Village, a bag and purse belonging to Hussein. Relatives of Hussein are still hoping to find her, being fully aware that should Friday pass if she too perished like the others then her body would already be in a badly decomposed state.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle late Thursday night, her distraught son, 19-year-old Joshua Samaroo, said he has not had more than a few hours’ sleep since Monday night but his body is not tired as his only goal is to find his mother.

With the help of friends and relatives, he has been using every available moment to search the land and sea in between tides and even venturing onboard the search and rescue river patrol hoping to find his mother.

“At this point, if it is that she drowned, I am just hoping to locate her body but given the timeframe, we already passed three tides which is an average time for the body to float up, we are now going on to the fourth day which means if there is any chance tomorrow will be the slightest of it for us to find her based on tonight’s tide,” he related.

On Thursday, the team left at dawn and searched from Number 55 Village, all the way to Scottsburg Beach on the coastland and continued into the day on the river between Number 50 and Number 78 Village.

Meanwhile, Divisional Commander Jairam Ramlakhan has confirmed that the post-mortem on the remains of Harihar and Joseph will be done today (Friday) at the Anthony’s Funeral home in Epsom Village, East Berbice, Corentyne.