By Richardson Dhalai Wednesday, January 16 2013

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BODY RECOVERED: At left, Moruga villagers look on during the search by fishermen in the Gran Chemin river, for the body of six-year-old Gabriella Marc...

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The body of six-year-old Gabriella Marcano, who disappeared at a Moruga beach during a family excursion on Sunday, was discovered yesterday by a party of Moruga residents. Her body was entangled in the roots of a mangrove tree in the nearby L’anse Mitan river..

The search party, led by Moruga fisherman, Arthur Steele, and three other villagers, journeyed up the river in a small fishing boat, Warcraft when they discovered the little girl’s body about 800 feet from the river mouth.

Marcano’s father, Sean Matthews, who was pacing the riverbank anxiously, was inconsolable when other villagers, who had gathered along the L’ anse Mitan bridge overlooking the river, began shouting that the search party had discovered the girl’s body.

Matthews, together with other villagers, ran to the bridge trying to get a look at his daughter;’s body as it was brought in by the search party.

“Look my child, look my child, look how she coming back,” Matthews wailed as he sank to knees and then slowly sat on the hot asphalt road.

Other villagers wept openly as the boat passed under the bridge and sailed to a shallower spot in the river to bring the body ashore. Then, as the boat reached the shore, Gabriella’s body, bloated from almost two days in the water, was fished out of the water, and brought ashore.

The little girl’s body was placed on a jacket belonging to another villager under the shade of an almond tree while her father stared at the body in disbelief. “How she mother going to face that,” he asked no-one in particular, “she say she wasn’t coming here today because she can’t face this.....how she go face this.”

Meanwhile, Steele, asked how his search party had been able to recover the body after the search by Coast Guard divers had proved unsuccessful, said he had assisted in the recovery of many bodies from the river over the years, and most of the victims’ bodies had always been discovered some distance up the river. “The tide came up on Sunday night so the body probably came up with the tide, and when it went down , it got tangled in the roots,” he said, adding, “Most people who does drown in the river does get stick in the mud and doesn’t be able to come out.”

According to reports, Gabriella together with her father, Sean Matthews and mother, Kelly Marcano, had left their Pleasantville, San Fernando home and were bathing in the water close to the river mouth when at approximately 3.20pm, she was discovered missing, and an alarm was raised by her parents.

Gabriella , who attended the Bishop Anstey Memorial Girls” Primary school, has two younger siblings, four-year-old Josiah, and Shawna, two.