Escaped prisoner’s body recovered from Mahaicony River

Jun 09, 2012 News

Police yesterday recovered the body of 53-year old Colin Sealey, less than 48 hours after he plunged

Dead: Colin Sealey

into the Mahaicony River to escape from custody.
Sealey’s body was found on the Mahaicony foreshore, about a mile west of the mouth of the river. It was brought inland around midday.
The river mouth is about three kilometres from where Sealey made his fateful plunge last Wednesday.
The discovery brought an end to speculation that Sealey, of Zeskenderen, might have somehow made it to shore after eluding the police and was hiding out somewhere waiting for the ‘heat to cool off’.
Some were disappointed and relatives were devastated although they had hoped against all odds that he was still alive.
A police source said that after there was no sign of Sealey up to early yesterday morning, a team led by a cadet officer rounded up some of his relatives and went out once more in a boat to search for his body.
After travelling for almost an hour they spotted an object lying on the foreshore and upon closer examination they were relieved to discovered Sealey’s remains which had begun to decompose.
Wrapping it in a tarpaulin, the team placed the body into their boat and brought it to the Mahaicony wharf where it was taken away by undertakers.
On Wednesday, Sealey who was arrested the previous day for indecently exposing himself to a woman, made a dash for freedom while he was being escorted from the Mahaicony Police Station lock-ups to the Cove and John Magistrate’s Court.
He plunged into the river, where the strong current carried him several yards down river before he managed to hold on to a rope that was securing a fishing boat.
According to eyewitnesses, after a few minutes, he let go of the rope and tried to swim to the eastern bank of the river but turned back when he saw the police waiting there for him.
It was while trying to get to the other side that he went down.
“Me gat fuh see he body fuh believe he drown. Da man is a swim man,” a resident of Mahaicony had declared hours after Sealey disappeared.

Undertakers remove Sealey’s body from a boat in the Mahaicony River.

Yesterday, a woman who lives close to where Sealey made his final plunge recalled that she saw when he went under the surface.
“Me say is dive he dive because me know how he wicked. Is now me believe dat he dead,” she said after the body was brought ashore.
Several villagers lined the Mahaicony Bridge, braving a drizzle to get a glimpse of the boat with Sealey’s body in it.
Even motorists became curious when they saw the crowd.
Relatives of the dead man were inconsolable.
One of his cousins, who had lost her son, Godwin Maxwell, in almost identical fashion three years ago broke down and had to be removed from the scene by other relatives.
Sealey’s body is now lying in a city mortuary awaiting a post mortem examination.