The Ortoire Village community was plunged into mourning yesterday, after a three-day search for little Allon Ramdial ended when his body was pulled out of the river.
Since last Friday morning, the community had been worried and restless after 19-year-old Christianna Ramdial reported that her three-year-old son was missing. It is believed he walked out to the jetty, which is a few feet away from the Ortoire Fishing Facility in Mayaro, where he lived with his mother and stepfather Carl Murphy.
The Hunters’ Search and Rescue Team, who was assisting the national security agencies and villagers in the search for the child, found his body around 11.40 am at a cove near the river mouth.
“An entire village is in mourning,” said Vallence Rambharat, head of the Hunters’ Search and Rescue Team last evening.
Explaining how they found the child’s body, Rambharat said, “This morning, members of the Lifeguard Unit attached to the Mayaro Station joined us in a search in and around the jetty area where the child is alleged to have fallen in. We completed that search and we moved on to the Ortoire River mouth, where there is a tricky area where you have to negotiate the rocks to get on to a small cove.
“Yesterday (Sunday), it was inaccessible both by foot and by boat, but today we made an attempt with the support of the lifeguard to wade through the water and upon arrival around 11.40 am, the body was spotted.”
He estimated the distance from the jetty to where little Allon’s body was found to be about 3,000 feet. He said the child’s body was later taken by boat to the fishing facility, where it was examined by the district medical officer.
Describing Ramdial’s disposition when her son’s body was found, he said, “She was very calm. They had a woman police with her comforting her and I think she did a good job. The mother was very calm. When they retrieved her son’s body from the river and handed it over to the undertakers it was a smooth process, as there weren’t no high emotions coming from the mother.”
He aded, “She even came to me after and thanked us for helping her find her son. She was calm even when we spoke.”
Attempts to contact the young mother on her phone were unsuccessful.
However, in an interview with Guardian Media on Saturday, she recalled that she woke up around 6.30 am last Friday and could not find her son. She said she called out to him but got no answer.
Ramdial said, “I started to panic. I went down in the river, checking all the depths, searching or holding all the boats trying to hold on. I still ain’t find him.”
She recalled that she then hurried across the road to a nearby bar to view their security cameras. He was not picked up on the cameras. Ramdial then called the police and within hours the Hunters’ Search and Rescue team and the Coast Guard arrived and began searching for the child.
She explained that for more than two years, she, her common-law husband Carl Murphy and her son have been living at fishing facility.
Ramdial revealed that she lived at the St Jude’s Children’s Home before running away at age 14. She was staying at a cousin’s house but at age 15, she got pregnant by a man while she was under the influence of alcohol. She never saw the man again. However, she claimed her cousin put her out after she realised she was pregnant.
Ramdial returned to her father’s hometown in Mayaro, where she met Murphy, who is a fisherman.
After her son went missing, a villager gave her a temporary lodging at her home.
Mayaro MP Rushton Paray said he was unaware that they were living at the port. When contacted yesterday, Paray said he was in Port-of-Spain but would be visiting Ramdial today to “see how best I can assist.”
The story was similar to that of Kimani Francis. Seven months ago, on May 9, Francis wandered away from his Techier Village, Point Fortin home, only wearing a disposable diaper. The next day, his body was found in the Guapo River, 750 metres away his home.
