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Body of second soldier recovered
Colin Harris (left) and Shondel Headley (2nd left), parents of Private Colwin Harris, listen as Commodore Best updates them regarding their missing son, at their home.
The search for Lance Corporal Colwin Harris, who went missing after the boating mishap on the Cuyuni River at Eteringbang last week, ended with the recovery of his body at the mouth of the Ekereku River, at around 10:45 hours yesterday.
The Lance Corporal and his colleague, Corporal Wesley Hopkinson, lost their lives in a boating accident on the Cuyuni River last Monday.
Hopkinson’s body was recovered at around 0:30hrs on Wednesday, some 15 miles from the area where the accident occurred. A deep gash on the 27-year-old soldier’s head was the only visible injury.
Hopkinson was dressed in a black three-quarter pants and a green vest. Lance Corporal Harris’s relatives have been notified, and his body was flown to the city yesterday.
The Chief-of-Staff and senior officers had visited with Harris’s relatives on Thursday at their residence at Friendship, East Coast Demerara.
Immediately following news of the accident, the GDF launched intensive searches and immediately launched a Board of Inquiry (BOI) into the incident.
Investigations into the circumstances of the accident are ongoing, and a full report of its findings will be communicated to the families of both soldiers.
A statement issued by the GDF early last week said that investigations have so far revealed that six soldiers were aboard a GDF vessel which collided with a civilian vessel in the Cuyuni River at about 20:30 hours on Monday.
It said that preliminary reports indicate that four of the soldiers were thrown into the river by the force of the collision, and two of them made it back to the safety of the boat, while Hopkinson and Harris did not.
Lance Corporal Harris earned his education at the Friendship and Cove and John Primary Schools, and the Golden Grove Secondary School.
After a brief stint learning the joinery trade, Harris surprised his mother with the news that he had joined the GDF, where he was posted to 4 Engineer’s Battalion after his Basic Recruit Training.
His relatives recalled his pleasant, quiet personality, and said that he was not a young man who talked much.
He leaves to mourn his parents, Colin Harris and Shaundel Headley, his grandmother Joyce Headley, sisters Ronessia and Roshanna Stephens, and brother King-David Simon. Also in mourning is his stepfather, Keith Simon, who is credited with raising him.
The GDF has assured Lance Corporal Harris’s family that it is committed to providing its fullest support for the interment of his body.
Kaieteur News understands that it does not appear that the dead soldiers and their colleagues were on patrol when the tragedy occurred.
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