An­na-Lisa Paul

A trau­ma­tised moth­er yes­ter­day ques­tioned whether her daugh­ter had drowned at Tyri­co Bay, even as the search for Ja­da Wil­son con­tin­ued with no suc­cess.

Pearlyn Par­ris said she did not be­lieve Wil­son, 18, had drowned, as was be­ing claimed, adding she was in shock over the de­tails of the in­ci­dent she had been giv­en by po­lice.

The griev­ing moth­er of eight said this is what led her to aban­don the plan she had to wash her breasts at Tyri­co Bay yes­ter­day.

It is be­lieved that when a child drowns at sea and the moth­er wash­es her breasts in the sea – as one moth­er to an­oth­er – the drowned per­son’s body will sur­face.

But speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia in the gallery of her home at St Au­gus­tine Cir­cu­lar, Monte Grande, Tu­na­puna, yes­ter­day, Par­ris said she still did not be­lieve Wil­son was dead.

And if she is, Par­ris swore she it could not have been by drown­ing, as her daugh­ter was afraid of the wa­ter be­cause she could not swim.

“My daugh­ter was killed. She did not drown. My daugh­ter don’t bathe in the beach,” Par­ris claimed.

Par­ris said while Wil­son loved to dress up as any oth­er young per­son when­ev­er she was go­ing out, she nev­er ven­tured in­to the wa­ter – ei­ther on the beach or a pool.

Par­ris said, “She will go to take out a pic­ture but she not go­ing in that wa­ter. My child is not go­ing in that wa­ter, I am 100 per cent sure about that. I don’t even be­lieve she is in the sea.”

She said she be­lieved some­thing more sin­is­ter be­fell her daugh­ter, who was em­ployed as a CEPEP work­er with the Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

Par­ris said the facts so far giv­en to her by the po­lice had not been adding up.

Par­ris chal­lenged a PH taxi dri­ver’s sto­ry that her daugh­ter hired him to take her to buy a pow­er wash­er in San Juan for her boyfriend for Christ­mas.

Ques­tion­ing where her daugh­ter’s be­long­ings were, in­clud­ing the pow­er wash­er and mon­ey she had re­ceived as part of her first salary, Par­ris said the first time she saw the man was when he re­turned Wil­son’s jew­ellery fol­low­ing the in­ci­dent on Tues­day.

Par­ris said her daugh­ter’s boyfriend was in­volved in con­struc­tion and home re­pairs and she want­ed to help him ex­pand the busi­ness.

She said Wil­son’s fa­ther was in­volved in the car rental busi­ness and she had ac­cess to a ve­hi­cle when­ev­er she wished. She said she was un­aware if her daugh­ter had met the PH dri­ver on­line.

Wil­son is the niece of Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) al­der­man Ke­van Gibbs.

A 31-year-old man from In­di­an Trail, Cou­va, was ques­tioned in re­la­tion to the mat­ter by po­lice and re­leased.

Wil­son re­port­ed­ly dis­ap­peared around 4.40 pm on Tues­day while swim­ming at Tyri­co Bay.

A par­ty of life­guards, along with the Hunters’ Search and Res­cue, con­tin­ued the search for Wil­son’s body yes­ter­day, but up to press time there had been no new de­vel­op­ments.

Par­ris said while the fam­i­ly had been gear­ing up to cel­e­brate Christ­mas, this tragedy had now robbed them of that joy.

She added, “I will nev­er cel­e­brate Christ­mas again.”

Main­tain­ing the firm be­lief that her daugh­ter did not drown, she said, “If she did, she did not drown on her own. I feel she was mur­dered...that is how I am feel­ing as a moth­er.”

Par­ris begged, “I just lost and I just want her, I just want her, I just want her body. I al­ready know she pass away and I just want her body and I just want to know the truth...I just want my child back.”

Bereft and feel­ing aban­doned by the au­thor­i­ties, Par­ris said no one had vis­it­ed the fam­i­ly to up­date her on the search or the in­ves­ti­ga­tion up to noon yes­ter­day.