What was supposed to be a fun-filled outing for a woman and her 18-year-old son ended tragically when the teenager drowned in the Caura River on Saturday. No one saw what happened to Rakesh Brandon Sinanan, who was last seen standing in chest-high water. He went missing at around 11.45 pm. At her Guaracarite Trace, Mayo home yesterday, Minnie Hosein, 58, a Cepep worker, was unable to come to terms with her son’s death. She said they had gone to the river with about eight other Cepep workers.
“Is the first time we gone up there. We was excited. I really did not want carry him because he don’t go nowhere. We stay to ourself,” she said. Hosein said Sinanan could not swim and had not been to a river before. The last time he went to the beach was about nine years ago. “We don’t have money to go nowhere,” she said. Hosein said they got to the river at around 11.30 am. The devout Hindu said she offered flowers and said a prayer before venturing into the water.
“My son did it, too. That is for protection to keep us safe, but like it take him instead.” She said her son went off on his own while she remained in shallow water. “When it was about 11.45 am I looking for he but I can’t find him. About 100 people went all in the bush looking for him because someone say they see him gone with two fellas.” The police were called and they arrived on the scene within mintues.
Hosein recalled: “While we was walking to the police the bathers touch something under the water and the body just move and we see is Brandon. I was helpless, I just start to bawl and roll.” She said Sinanan had been her “hand and foot,” since her husband died five years ago. Hosein also has a 21-year-old son, but he does not live with her. “I don’t know how I going to live here alone,” sobbed Hosein who lives in a small wooden house with no electricity, or water.
An autopsy is expected to be done today at the Forensic Science Centre in St James. Tunapuna police are investigating.