Baby reportedly wanders off, found floating in canal at Dredge Creek

A child, just 15 months old died by drowning on Monday at Dredge Creek on the Essequibo Coast.

Police Headquarters identified the child as Kenley Smith and said the incident occurred at about 16:00 hrs.

According to the 27-year-old mother, she had just breastfed the child and left him naked with his three other siblings, the eldest being nine years old, and went into her house to get clothing for the child who was going to bathe.

Shortly after, she was alerted by her other children that they were not seeing Kenley.

She searched the yard but did not find the child. She further searched in front of the canal near their Landing, and the child’s lifeless body was found in the water.

She immediately called a taxi and rushed the child to the Charity Cottage Hospital, where the child was seen by a Doctor who pronounced him dead. The body was examined, and no marks of violence were seen. The body is at the hospital’s mortuary awaiting a Post Mortem Examination.