3 years later, Shellon Williamson’s family still haunted by her missing body

Jan 18, 2026 News

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By Shermon Hawker

(Kaieteur News) – It has been nearly four years since Shellon Williamson disappeared in the Canje River, taking with her the essence of a bona fide sisterhood now splintered, and a family circle that aches, pooling every morsel of strength to navigate their daily lives without her.

In what bore semblances to a Shakespearean tragedy, the mother of three perished alongside her lover in 2022, when a boat they were in was compromised by a hole in the bottom that in no time rapidly took in water.  She was only three years removed from 30, and her partner, Richard John, 29. News of the calamity ripped the hearts of many in the community of Angoy’s Avenue that themed her entire childhood, while John’s family buckled in grief. They were fortunate to have his remains to huddle around one last time before committing him to the ground, but for the family of Shellon, what compounds their anguish tenfold is that there was no chance of affording her a formal send off.

The ill-fated boat was docked, and John was recovered days after, but Shellon was never seen again.

A reality without closure

Iyana Williamson, her younger sibling, had accepted without denial that her sister is no more, but would have preferred a physical tomb in which to lay her, than the fathoms of water that more than likely have devised for her a watery grave. With not an inch of closure, her sister with whom she had the strongest ties went under, but the blunt pain of losing her in that manner stays afloat in her heart as each day turns.

Leaving New Amsterdam

Shellon grew up in Angoy’s Avenue in New Amsterdam, Berbice, bundled among siblings, a set up dominated by females. Owing to a few missteps, her mother arranged for her to relocate to Linden, where she stayed for an extended period at an older sibling. Not only did she leave behind her other siblings and her mother, but John, who was her high school boyfriend. Shellon reviewed the contents of her new chapter and determined that no one would author her story. At least not all of it. She absorbed her new environment and set about life in the mining town.

In time, she would birth three children to a man with whom she lived in Linden. It would seem as though she was anchored there. Despite being relocated, her heart and mind stayed with her sweetheart Richard, of Edinburgh Village, East Bank Berbice. The distance only served up motivation for strengthening their bond, and communication was consistent between the two lovers.

If only she had stayed in Linden…

In 2022, Shellon returned to her community, there to remain for good it seemed. Accompanying her was her little family, and they all lodged at her mother’s residence in Angoy’s Avenue.

Revisiting the painful period, Iyana told this publication that she and her sister were close-knit, and as such, Shellon, the eldest of the two, would bequeath to her all of her most intimate information. It was by virtue of this connection that Iyana learnt of the still simmering relationship with her sister and Richard. She did not approve the background engagement, and conveyed on more than one occasion her displeasure with the path her sister was venturing onto.

“When I told her that what she’s doing is wrong- I told her that she has three children, and that (with) what she is doing, she will end up ruining her life. She tell me leh I don’t study she, leh I study me. I said ok…”

Iyana cautioned her sister that her course could prove damaging to her life, but never imagined her words would be prophetic, for in a few days from her admonition, Shellon’s life would end, circumstantially due to the sequence of choices all aligning with her desire and determination to be with Richard.

The two were not afforded enough time with which to spend the abundant currency of their love for each other.

Seemingly good fortunes

Upon her return home, Shellon and Richard reunited officially after years of being socially and physically detached. She successfully secured a job at Outback Adventures, a recreational park and resort in Gangaram Village, East Canje, Berbice, and was smoothly readjusting to life in the Berbice society once again

Her stint there lasted for a few months. Meanwhile, the sisters’ bond would kindle; Shellon would visit Iyana several times for her hair to be combed.

As she went back for the second or third time for Iyana to style her hair, she related to her sister that she had visited Richard’s family to familiarize herself with them, and that she stayed for some time at the family.

Thereafter, Iyana would demonstrate her hairdressing skills on her sister’s head for the fourth time or thereabout, and that would be the very last time she would have a physical interaction with her beloved sister. So much for being close-knit, for why Shellon did not disclose to her most trusted sibling her travel plans is a mystery Iyana would never be able to solve.

“A day she come- It was a Friday- she said ‘Iyana comb my hair, I’m going out’, but she never tell me she’s going river. I said alright good, I aint geh nothing to say. She go home. The next day mommy asked me if I see Shellon, I said no I did not see Shellon. She said Shellon go away the night and them ain’t see she back.”

It would have been best if she had stayed in Linden, Iyana somberly posited.

Tragedy befalls two lovers

On Friday, April 29, 2022, Shellon and Richard were on-board a four-member vessel bound for a journey up the Canje Creek. Reports on the incident stated that not long after it left, she had raised an alarm to the captain of the vessel, Dennis John, the brother of Richard, that water was pouring in from a huge hole in the bottom of the boat.

The incident occurred at around 20:45 that fateful evening, while the members on board were preparing a meal. News of water leaking into the boat at a fast rate whipped the passengers into instant panic, and the three men which included another brother of Richard, and the lone female, Shellon, all sought the best option for safety in that do-or-die situation. The captain related that a massive amount of water was already in the vessel by the time he sprang to his feet.

In fear and desperation, he attempted to climb to the highest point while the boat turned over. His brother, who was said to be behind him, disappeared along with Williamson, who he had reportedly turned back to check on. The tugboat that departed with four individuals was pulled to shore, but the couple was not fortunate. They vanished into the chilly waters of the night. Sometime later on, word would reach the respective families, all suspended in shock and grief.

“My mother called me and told me Shellon meet up in accident and that she drowned…” Iyana recalled to this publication.

Shellon was not a swimmer, a fact which at that time struck down any desperate hope that she could be alive and elsewhere.

The Guyana Defense Force (GDF) Coast Guard and ranks from the Guyana Police Force (GPF), along with divers launched an extensive recovery exercise beginning not too far from the Canje Bridge where the incident unfolded, to locate the bodies of those who by then were feared dead, but to no immediate success. Two days later, however, they recovered the body of Richard. Of Shellon, however, there was no sighting.

Grief, suspicion and uncertainty

For a brief moment, Iyana entertained some suspicious views that quickly formed in her mind, none of which she acted on or held with full measure of conviction all the same.

“Something not too right. If they found him, they are supposed to find her. Something fishy happened there,” she contended.

With no amount of closure, she even toyed with the idea that her sister was probably killed and thrown overboard. All mere conjectures by one in grief and without a sense of finality on the death of her sister.

Home is where the hurt is

Almost four years since that tear-framed day, Iyana related the anguish fresh on hearts of the family, who reflects as though it occurred yesterday. Time played no supportive role in healing that wound, but only to measure how long it has been without her. For Iyana, seeing her sister lowered in a casket and handing her a proper funeral, as shattering as that would have been, would have been much more tolerable than the present reality of her just vanishing out of frames of their family portrait.

She pains to see that others relevant to the tragic incident have since moved on.

“It really hurt me to see that my sister just go down just so without no proper investigation, and the people that went with them living their lives free, drinking freely. I did really need justice for my sister although we didn’t find her body.”

Their mother, by all natural expectation, is grief-stricken most of all.

“My mother does take it on. I could see. Every day she does put up Shellon on her Facebook page….I miss her really bad. It left a shock to me how she died and they never find her…”

 

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• Canje River, missing, New Amsterdam, Shellon Williamson

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