A hik­ing ex­pe­di­tion by a group of peo­ple from War­ren­vale, Guaico, San­gre Grande to Rio Seco Wa­ter­falls end­ed in tragedy when a young man drowned.

Tris­tan Math­i­son, 19, a Form 6 stu­dent of Man­zanil­la High, dis­ap­peared un­der­wa­ter at the Rio Seco pool. Fam­i­ly and friends lat­er pulled out his life­less body from the wa­ter.

A tear­ful Renukah, Math­i­son's girl­friend, said af­ter bathing they sat on the rocks chat­ting when mem­bers of the group told them it was "time to rack up."

She said Math­i­son told her, " 'Ba­by, I go­ing for the last dip.' " Renukah said she begged him not to go as every­one was ready to leave, but he did not lis­ten. He went in­to the wa­ter while the oth­ers looked on.

A few min­utes lat­er they saw his head and be­lieved that he was float­ing, then he dis­ap­peared. By the time they rushed in­to the wa­ter he was al­ready dead.

"I screamed and fell on the ground say­ing why this has to hap­pen when I saw his life­less body be­ing tak­en out from the wa­ter and placed on the bank of the pool," Renukah said.

At the fam­i­ly's home, Stacey Trim, the moth­er of the de­ceased, in tears, said he was her on­ly son.

"He has made me proud so far. He was very in­tel­li­gent and was a Form 6 stu­dent at Man­zanil­la High and was sup­posed to write ex­am­i­na­tions."

She said he woke up around 6 am on Fri­day and told her he was go­ing on a hike to Matu­ra. "He went and show­er and re­turned in my bed­room and lie with me on the bed. He told me he is look­ing for a job, will work in the night and study in the day. He looked at me three times and then asked for some per­fume, which I gave to him. He then left."

Trim said she re­ceived a call around 7 pm on Fri­day from his girl­friend who told her he had drowned.

"I was shocked and was able to say an­oth­er word. My boy was a lov­ing, dis­ci­plined and car­ing child. I could not ask for a bet­ter son."

Po­lice of­fi­cers led by W Sgt Her­nan­dez and in­clud­ing PCs Paul, Dan­drade and WPC Seedani of Matu­ra Po­lice re­spond­ed. Vis­it­ing the scene were ASP Gabriel Joseph and of­fi­cers of the Crime Scene In­ves­ti­ga­tion in San­gre Grande.

Po­lice con­tact­ed Dis­trict Med­ical Of­fi­cer Dr Nzed­i­ma who viewed the body and or­dered it re­moved to the San­gre Grande Hos­pi­tal mor­tu­ary.

WPC Seedani of Matu­ra Po­lice Sta­tion is con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

On Thurs­day Lyn­don Clement, 27, of Tumpuna Road drowned when he went for a swim at a pri­vate beach in Blan­chisseuse.

Both men were con­tra­ven­ing the Pub­lic Health Reg­u­la­tions im­posed as a re­sult of the COVID-19 virus.