Police absence delays drowned city schoolboy’s post-mortem, funeral
RELATIVES of the Tiger Bay youngster who recently perished when a swimming expedition went awry, are both upset and peeved that a delay in the post-mortem has caused his funeral to be postponed. They blame the delay in the performance of a post mortem on the remains of seven-year-old Devon Gibson on the tardiness of the police, saying that on Friday last when they turned up at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC)’s mortuary, they were told that the procedure could not be performed as scheduled, because the policeman assigned to witness it had arrived late. To make matters worse, they were also told that the Pathologist had to leave as he’d had a prior engagement.
Relatives said Friday they would like the post-mortem to be done as expeditiously as possible so they can proceed with the funeral arrangements, given the state of decomposition involved.
The late St. Margaret’s Primary School pupil’s body was found by an Essequibo resident in an advanced state of decomposition at the Hampton Court foreshore at approximately 04:00hrs on May Day, Tuesday May 1, 2012.
Following the find, police contacted his relatives, and they journeyed to the Essequibo Coast where they made a positive identification of the body.
Devon reportedly disappeared in the murky waters of the Demerara River here in the city while on a swimming expedition on April 28, 2012. He was accompanied on the expedition by a male adult and five boys from the area.
According to speculation, the group had apparently stolen a march and gone diving at the Kingston jetty unknowing to their elders; only five returned alive, since Gibson, who couldn’t swim, vanished on encountering turbulent waters.