Woman, three children drown after death ritual

Feb 04, 2015 News

Going to the Atlantic Ocean to place items used in Hindu religious ceremonies is nothing unusual; but on Monday afternoon unimaginable tragedy struck for a family of Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo.
Fifty three-year-old Radhika Persaud had earlier in the day taken part in a ceremony in honour of her mother who died a year ago. In the afternoon, the items used in the service were to be washed out to sea and Persaud decided to take the items. She took along her 14-year-old son Rovin, and her niece’s two children nine-year-old Annatina Persaud and 12-year-old Billy Narine.

Radhika Persaud

They were all found dead at around 21:00h, some five hours after they went to take the offerings to sea.
After the ceremony during the day, it was about 16:00h when Radhika opted to take the offerings to sea, her niece, Subrina, the mother of Annatina and Billy, said.
She placed the items in a blue bucket and headed off to the oceanfront, just about five minutes walk from the Lot 13 Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo house in which she lived with her son.
After Radhika failed to return at a reasonable time, her sister Mala, decided to go and see what was taking them so long. She saw no one, but noticed the children’s clothes and footwear on the sea dam. She figured they had a swim and had proceeded to the neighbourhood where Radhika was expected to distribute some of the offerings from the ritual earlier.
However, after another prolonged period passed and she saw no sign of them, she went for another look, but saw no sign of her sister and her son, along with her two grandchildren.
Mala said she returned home and the family began calling around neighbours. No one had seen the woman and the three children.

Rovin Persaud

As the water started to recede, Mala spotted the blue bucket a good distance at sea and started to fear the worse. The Police were called in, and as time passed and the water continued to recede, all four bodies were found lying on the foreshore.
The family is left to wonder exactly how they died. The trip to the Ocean was nothing complicated.
The relatives of the deceased are left only to believe they all drowned under circumstances they may never come to know.