7 News Belize

2 Friends Drown in Orange Walk
posted (January 12, 2009)

Two friends drowned in a swimming tragedy yesterday in northern Belize. 24 year old Jair Moh, 17 year old Honduran national Javier Hernandez, and 32 year old Eber Sarmiento left Belize City on Sunday morning enroute to swim in the Rio Bravo area of Orange Walk – near the Belize-Mexico border. But tragedy struck when the men entered the water Sunday afternoon and unexpected currents and eddies swept them away. The only survivor is Eber Sarmiento and with the help of a translator – he told us that a rock is saved his life.

Eber Sarmiento, Friend of the Deceased
“He said they reached at La Union around 11 o’clock and they eat something and then they went to La Union and they went to the river and went swimming. He says Jair first went into the river and then the current took Jair right to the side and he started to drowned. And then him, Eber, was the second to jump in the river and then Javier went into the river, two of them.

Jair got in first right, then him, so they couldn’t save anybody and the river took them apart. When he went into the water he felt a rock right and he grabbed the rock and stayed on the rock. Jair was on the other side and Javier was on the other side and he said he held the rock and that’s why he didn’t drown.”

Police Pathologist Dr. Mario Estradabran will perform post mortems on both men tomorrow. 24 year old Jair Moh was a supervisor at Ready Call while Javier Hernandez was a shop assistant at the Quality Poultry Products Supermarket.

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