Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter 

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

What was ex­pect­ed to be a fun get­away in Ma­yaro with friends end­ed in tragedy for 65-year-old Ram­dath Pana, who was found float­ing in the sea on Fri­day.

Pana’s younger sis­ter, Su­ma­tee Ra­mou­dith, said yes­ter­day that he left with a group of child­hood friends to a beach house near In­di­an Bay, Guayagua­yare, where they would nor­mal­ly go fish­ing.

She said they ar­rived around mid­day, and her broth­er was high­ly in­tox­i­cat­ed when he went in­to the wa­ter some­time af­ter 1 pm.

Re­hash­ing what was re­lat­ed to her, she said, “He nor­mal­ly don’t go in the wa­ter to bathe, and they say as he reach, he just want to go to bathe. They say they went to put out the net, and look­ing for him, and they weren’t see­ing him. When they do see him, he fall face down in the wa­ter and he was done float­ing up al­ready.”

She said he was found in shal­low wa­ter, just above the an­kle. While they are wait­ing on the au­top­sy to de­ter­mine how he died, Ra­mou­dith said she did not sus­pect foul play.

Apart from be­ing in­tox­i­cat­ed, she said her broth­er suf­fered from hy­per­ten­sion and had not tak­en his med­ica­tion for weeks.

“I don’t know if his pres­sure went up high and he got a ‘black-out’ and fell. I am wait­ing on the au­top­sy on Mon­day. But I do not be­lieve it had any­thing to do with his friends. Those friends are good to him. They are with him all the time.”

She said the po­lice al­so in­di­cat­ed there were no marks of vi­o­lence on his body.

Pana lived alone in New Grant, had no chil­dren, and was not mar­ried. Ma­yaro po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.