Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Writer

Ikel Henry (left) and Shadder Henry (right)

Spanish Town, St. Catherine:

After waiting almost a day for some final word on her sons' fate, Karlene Hall was only satisfied when their bodies were pulled from the Rio Cobre near Eltham Park, St. Catherine, about noon yesterday.

The grieving mother told The Gleaner it would have been less dignified if her children were left to rot in the river where they drowned.

The bodies of 10-year-old Ikel Henry and his seven-year-old brother Shadder were taken from the Rio Cobre by divers from the Police Marine Division more than 20 hours after they went to the river with another child.

According to the children's mother, some time after 4:30 Thursday afternoon, the boys were at the river when Shadder tried to retrieve his slippers from the water, got into difficulty and shouted for help. Ikel ran to his rescue but also got into difficulty and both went under water. The third child, frightened by the incident, ran to relatives and told them of the ordeal.

"A cyaan believe that the two pickney really dead cause dem a de two last one," their mother told The Gleaner as she was being consoled by relatives. "And Shadder was always telling me dat him goin make mi dream come through cause him a go be de next Asafa (Powell). They were both helpful to me and it really really hurt."

Lack of concern

However, the residents of the area were equally angered by what they considered a lack of concern by the authorities. According to them, having called the police, the bodies of the children were not quickly recovered as no one initially came to dive into the deep section of the river where the incident had allegedly occurred.

Residents also noted that, in the morning, several men wanted to capitalise on the moment, asking for up to $25,000 to dive into the murky water to retrieve the bodies.