Decomposing body washes up on Colonarie beach

The badly decomposed body that washed up on Colonarie beach on Wednesday afternoon appears to have been embalmed.

Police say the body, believed to be that of a man, was found in the area of the beach at the rear of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church at Colonarie, sometime after 3 p.m.

One professional told SEARCHLIGHT that the body appears to have been embalmed less than one year ago. {{more}}

Although in an advanced state of decomposition, there was still skin on the face and torso of the body.

With the discovery of the yet to be identified body, persons are speculating that it may have come from one of two cemeteries on the Wind­ward side of St Vincent, where burial plots were washed away recently.

If the theory that the body did come from one of these plots holds true, the body is more likely to have come from the London cemetery, where significant erosion occurred last Monday night during the passage of an eastward moving trough system. The erosion at the London cemetery opened several burial plots, exposing coffins, caskets and what appeared to be a body in a sack. The London cemetery is located on the north east coast of mainland St Vincent, about 20 miles north of the Colonarie beach.

While the London cemetery is still active, the old Park Hill cemetery, where a bank collapsed about three weeks ago, taking with it a number of graves into the Colonarie river, has been closed since 2002.

Wednesday’s discovery is the second time in November that an unidentified body has been discovered. On Wednesday, November 9, at about 1:20 p.m., Coastguard personnel were patrolling along the Kingstown shores when they saw a male body floating in the water off Cane Garden Point.

When the body was retrieved, it was swollen, partially decomposed, clad in a pair of short black pants and a short multi-coloured shirt. That body, which has still not been identified, has a tattoo on the left wrist.

At least two persons have been reported missing over the last few months, including dancer Kahili Tupac Ollivierre alias “QQ,” who was last seen at 4:47 p.m. on August 4, 2016 at Dougan’s Shop in Calliaqua and Garnet Thomas, whose mother Meril Antoine has not heard from him since February 14 this year.

On December 26, 2012, Menelaus “Servant of the Lord” Jocelyn went missing and has not been seen since. Jocelyn, who lived in Cane Garden, last communicated with his family on Christmas Day 2012.

Members of the public with information that can lead to the identification of the body can contact the Criminal Investiga­tions Department at 457-1211 or 456-2906 or 456-1810.