The Seventh Day Adventist Church has been plunged into mourning over two separate drowning incidents, just hours apart involving four men.
Dead are 31 year old Shavar Lewis and 30 year old Duran Bryan both from St. Ann and attached to the North Jamaica Conference as well as 26 year old JDF soldier Joseph Anderson and 26 year old Karajh Gayle, both of Manchester and attached to the Central Jamaica Conference.
Reports are that on Sunday December 30, Lewis and Bryan were among a group of church members at the Silver Sands Beach in Duncans Trelawny. Its reported that while there, one person was swimming and got into difficulties and two other went to assist.
Further reports are that all three then got into difficulties.
One of the three managed to make it back to shore alive. Bryan was later taken from the water but was pronounced dead at hospital. Efforts by the JDF Coast Guard to locate Lewis, were hampered by unfavorable sea conditions. His body was later recovered.
While the church was mourning those deaths, news came that another two persons had drowned, this time in St. Elizabeth on Monday December 31.
Gayle and Anderson reportedly went missing after they got into difficulty while swimming at the French Man’s Bay Beach in Treasure Beach.
Anderson’s body was recovered yesterday (Tues), while Gayle’s body is yet to be retrieved.
The Coast Guard reported that the recovery was being hampered by sharks.
