Leonora Mom anxious for clues after only son found dead

A Leonora, West Coast Demerara mother is desperate for answers after her only son was found dead at the seawalls on Monday morning.

Tragically, this is the second time that the mother has had to face a shocking and unexpected death in her family.

Twenty-one years ago, Kamaldai Etwaru had to contend with the sudden death of her husband Radhakrishna. He took his own life.

She was left a widow at just 32 years old, and to care for two children, namely her daughter Shivanie, who was just three months old, and her son, Sunil, then two years old.

The same Sunil Mangra, who is now dead.

When she found herself alone and with two mouths to feed, Ms Etwaru found jobs as a domestic worker to make ends meet. But that changed once the children became adults.

“I worked and looked after them and when they got big, they didn’t want me to work; they said they will work and look after me,” she told the News Room at her home.

At age 18, Sunil found work at the Uitvlugt Estate, working the boilers. Every week, he would give his mother his wages; Friday last, he had worked a double shift, and came home at midnight and would later give his mother $10, 000.

“Saturday he relaxed in the hammock all day and then in the afternoon he showered and said he was going out.

“I told him not to stay out late, because you know how the times are,” she related.

When he didn’t come home Saturday night, Ms Etwaru figured he would be at a nearby place where he would help to pluck chickens on the weekends. But when she called, he was not there.

Worried, she started to ask questions and her relatives joined in a search.  A report was made to the nearby Leonora Police Station and on Monday morning Ms Etwaru received the dreaded call to identify her son’s body.

“When I got to the Leonora Cottage hospital, they already had him in the hearse but they allowed me to see a piece of his face.”

Her fears confirmed, Ms Etwaru broke down in tears, screaming to release the pain. It was confirmed, her only son, the one who took care of her, was now dead.

Between Saturday afternoon and the time he was found dead, all that is known is that Mangra was at village shop with a few others.

Mangra was found at the seawalls, without his bicycle and the “fat silver chain” he was wearing, his mother said.

A post-mortem Wednesday will determine how he died.