Father hears of son’s drowning 6 days later

Joshua Alexander’s father learned of his death six days after he drowned in the Marlins swimming pool, Westmoorings, last week.

Alexander, 18, was found dead in the pool last week Wednesday afternoon. Police suspect he and three other boys jumped the wall for a swim.

Alexander got into difficulty and drowned. The others left him there and staff later found his body. Newsday spoke to Alexander’s father Mark Alexander at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, on Tuesday. He said he had tried to contact his son over the past few days, not knowing he was dead and was not sure if a missing person’s report was made to police by the teen’s mother.

“I really wanted to talk to him so I tried calling him, but his phone kept ringing out. He just turned 18 in January, so I wanted to invite him to my house in Mayaro, where we could talk and reconnect. I was working on organising a job for him, but that never happened. I didn’t get a whole lot of information from the relatives who he (Joshua) lives with, but I was told that no report was made of him being missing.”

The elder Alexander said his son lived with his grandmother in Diego Martin. He was surprised when he heard of Joshua’s death earlier on Tuesday morning, as it was unlike him to go out with friends.

“When his mother called me this morning and told me what happened, I couldn’t believe it. I was doubtful that was really Joshua, because I knew he used to keep to himself and didn’t follow friends.

Since last Friday I got this vibes to leave what I was doing and go and physically check on him to make sure he was all right. But I decided to stay home in Mayaro and work on my house.

“I regret not following my mind. I’m a firefighter and my instincts told me to go and check on my son – and this is the news I got.” An autopsy is expected to be done on Alexander’s body at the Forensic Science Centre, on Wednesday.