The body of 14-year-old Ja­mal Arthur washed ashore yes­ter­day at Ba­lan­dra Beach, To­co. Arthur, a Stan­dard Five pupil of the San­gre Grande Sev­enth-Day Ad­ven­tist School, was dig­ging for pacro with neigh­bours on Tues­day morn­ing when he re­port­ed­ly got in­to dif­fi­cul­ties and dis­ap­peared. Coast Guard of­fi­cers spent sev­er­al hours on Wednes­day morn­ing search­ing for him. His body was found around 1.30 pm a short dis­tance from where he dis­ap­peared be­hind the Sev­enth-Day Ad­ven­tist camp, po­lice said.

In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Arthur's moth­er, Paulette, said Arthur was "not a big swim­mer." She added: "The tide was low and they went to pick pacro. When he de­cid­ed to come in, the wave picked him up and his friend es­caped from the wave. He al­ways used to go where they were go­ing." The moth­er of sev­en de­scribed Arthur as a "di­a­bet­ic, who loved gar­den­ing and sports and was al­ways a will­ing and help­ful child." San­gre Grande Po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.