Cousins drown at Sans Souci Beach

Almost two dozen relatives and neighbours scoured the North Eastern coastline on Easter Monday, searching for the body of Jakeem Phillip, 16, who drowned with his cousin Dillon Clark, 25, while bathing at Sans Souci Beach the day before during a family outing.

Clark's body was pulled from the water by relatives and onlookers and bystanders tried to perform CPR but Clark was not responsive.

Manning the parlour at the front of her Gosine Street, Freeport home on April 21, Clark's sister Nkese Bailey, 37, said she sat out the search party as she had barely slept or eaten since hearing the news. She was not with the family when the incident happened.

She was told the cousins left the family group around 3.30 pm to go for a walk along the beach when they went into the water and got into difficulties.

"My son went but he didn't go out (in the water). I say thank God you didn't go out because none of allyuh can't swim."

"He say he sit in the sand bathing like a baby and he feeling the sand pulling him. So it had a little current."

She last spoke to Clark just minutes before the incident when she called his phone to speak to her 18-year-old son.

"I asked him (Clark) if everything okay and he say yes."

Bailey found out about the incident around 5 pm through a phone call while at a kite flying competition in Waterloo. After receiving the news she said she returned home and left to meet her family at the Sangre Grande Hospital and left around 2 am to return home. She said everyone was distraught over the deaths.

"My mother, she's in a mess. Jakeem mother, she trying to hold up but deep down inside she want to scream out."

She added: "I can't cry in front my mummy because I'm trying to hold up for her. So when I get my private chance I would cry and grieve."

She said Clark had plans to settle down with his girlfriend. He worked at a local baking company and as a taxi driver to complete the house he started construction on last year.

"He taking out his little loan and thing and paying and building and paying back and taking a next loan again. He (was) very constructive. He didn't play with his work."

She said Phillip was a form four student of the Carapichaima Secondary School and recently told her he wanted to be a tradesman and learn to fix air condition units.

"He say 'Aunty, I get through with Servol you know.' I say 'Okay Jak, all you have to do is behave yourself now and don't give no trouble. Anywhere you go you could shine.' He always coming by me, every day he inside by me."

With this trauma, Bailey advised people to stay away from the beaches.

"Stay off the beaches. Stay home. That's my advice...out here different now."

The Met Office's forecast on April 20 said seas were expected to have been moderate with waves of 1.5 to two metres in open waters and 0.5 to one metre in sheltered areas.

A woman who went to the beach on the same day of the incident, who did not want to be named, said her family left because the water was too rough for her children. Her family opted to go to Grande Riviere where it was more comfortable.

Clark was the youngest of seven children while Phillip was the second oldest of five.

Bailey said she appreciated the support the family was receiving from members of the community and even those she did not even know.

She believes the Coast Guard was assisting in the search. When contacted, the TTCG public affairs officer Khadija Lamy said she was not in a position to comment.