Woman's body spotted at bottom of Kaieteur Falls

Woman’s body spotted at bottom of Kaieteur Falls

Sep 14, 2015 News

The agonizing wait appears to be over for the relatives of Laleta Sivanand, who disappeared during a visit to the majestic Kaieteur Falls.
A body strongly believed to be that of the missing woman was spotted by the Kaieteur National Park Rangers late Saturday afternoon below the falls, in an area that had previously been submerged due to high water levels.
According to information, over the last week water levels have dropped at the falls, with the rocky area becoming exposed for the first time since the search began for the woman.

Laleta Sivanand

Initially all of the trails in the Park were searched and binoculars were also used to view the area below the falls and along the sides of the gorge. However, there was no trace of the woman.
This newspaper was told that a team comprising ranks from the Guyana Defence Force and the Guyana Police Force was dispatched yesterday to assess and potentially recover what appears to be a body from the base of the Kaieteur Falls.
The Special Forces Team will be working with the Park Rangers in this new operation.
The Department of National Resources and the Environment in a statement said that due to the logistics required and considering the sensitive nature of the operation, the Park has again been closed until the assessment and recovery effort is complete.
Sivanand disappeared two Tuesdays ago while on a tour to the Kaieteur National Park.
Sivanand, who is employed in the field of Human Resources, is a former employee of Laparkan and Singer’s.
She was part of a nine man touring party that left the Ogle Airport for a tour of the world famous water falls in an Air Services Limited aircraft.
Reports are that the woman was seen crying and talking on her phone while on the airplane.
When the aircraft landed at the falls the woman appeared to be in a better frame of mind.
However, Sivanand was discovered missing when the tour guide was distributing chits to the passengers for snacks, at the Kaieteur airstrip before they boarded the aircraft back to Ogle.

Kaieteur Falls

One of her colleagues on the trip said that the missing woman was with the party when it was returning along the trail from the falls.
She said that the woman lagged behind and when they urged her to walk up she said that she knew the place and that she had been there several times before.
She spoke of being with a British team that discovered some caves in the Kaieteur Falls area a few years ago.
This publication had visited the woman’s home at Durban Backlands and spoke to her husband Rabindranauth Sivanand, but he did not wish to say much.
He however echoed the sentiments of an elderly woman at the home that it is, “A troubling, worrisome and stressful time for the family.”
He said that he last saw his wife on Tuesday (September 01) morning, adding that “she left to go out but she did not say where she was going.”
He had also expressed hope, saying, “I hope that they find her and that she is found alive.”
This newspaper revisited the home yesterday and met the missing woman’s mother in law.
“I know what you are here for but I have nothing to say and my son is not at home,” she told reporters.
From previous experience, it would seem that it would take no less than three days before the team could reach the body at the bottom of the 700-foot waterfalls.