Twelve-year-old boy drowns at Rose Bank

Identical twins share a special bond, so it’s beyond imagination how 12-year-old Kenroy “Biggie” Grant feels about his twin brother’s death.

Kenroy, who lives in Fitz Hughes with his aunt, was visiting his brother Kelroy “Smallie” who lived in Rose Bank with their mother, who had gone to Arnos Vale for the One Day International cricket match between Australia and the West Indies.{{more}}

Kenroy told SEARCHLIGHT that earlier in the day, he had gone to the nearby beach to bail out his stepfather’s boat and after he returned, he and his brother went to the shop, bought chicken and rice and cooked a meal.

“After we finish eating, Smallie say he want to go ah sea, and ah say, ‘Boy yo car swim, ley we stay home’,” Biggie said. Smallie set off for the bay, so his brother had no option but to follow him, he said.

Biggie said that his brother was trying to swim to his stepfather’s boat that was moored in the bay when he disappeared, so he (Biggie) swam out and saw him at the bottom of the bay. “I couldn’t get him so I went back to shore and call out and a woman came,” a distraught Biggie said. Kelroy was taken out of the water shortly after, but he was already dead.

Retired teacher Judith Soleyn, Biggie’s neighbour, told SEARCHLIGHT that around 12:30 p.m. she saw one of the twins sitting on the wall below her house, apparently waiting for the other. “I began to wonder which one is sitting on the wall as they look so much alike. It was about half an hour later that I heard the commotion,” Soleyn said.

Mother of the twins, Dion Grant, said that she was about to have something to eat at the Arnos Vale playing field when a woman came up to her and said, “Yo na hear me ah call yo. Yo boy drown ah Rose Bank”. “I was in shock, I couldn’t believe because I know that Kelroy don’t like sea. Ah really struggle wid me children dem, now Smallie dead,” Dion bawled.

Principal Deana Haywood of the Troumaca Primary School, which Kelroy attends, said that she is very saddened by the tragedy. “He was the quietest student in his class and it was just yesterday that he was at school practicing a song for graduation,” Haywood said.