7 News Belize

Body Of 79 Year Old Still Not Found
posted (November 24, 2011)
Tonight, the body of 79 year old apparent drowning victim Carl Flowers has still not been recovered from the Belize River - near his home in Flower's Bank.

Today, an all-out effort to find his body continued, and Monica Bodden was in Flower's Bank:..

Monica Bodden reporting
Day 2 and the search continues for the body of 79 year old Carl Flowers - It began at 7 o'clock this morning - with his sons and other men from around Flowers Bank village - scouting the area of the river where Flowers was believed to have gone under.

Christopher Guydis - Son
"Yesterday evening we reach here about 3:30pm - 4:00pm and we did some diving but the time ran up on us, so we figured this morning we would get more divers and we comb the area where we figured more or less he was. Right up to this minute we don't find any clue of the canoe, no clue of clothes he had on."

Monica Bodden
"I understand that his common-law-wife was with him and you guys actually took her out in the boat to see which area the incident happened. What was that like?"

Jerry Rhaburn - Son
"She did show us more or less the area. That's the basic, if you could find the area where the accident then we could figure out more or less where to find my dad but I guess he is nowhere to be found."

The team of divers was later joined by the Belize Coast Guard. Besides being fully equipped to dive these waters, it was still quite a challenge for the men - since visibility was minimal to none in the murky waters of the Belize River.

It was mostly touching their way around under water.

Lt. Gregory Soberanis - Flotilla Commander, BNCG
"We are here to conduct a recovery operation trying to locate Mr. Flowers. Currently we have 8 divers conducting the operation consisting of Coast Guard personnel along with civilian divers. We've sector of the river and we are going conducting search for each sector trying to locate either the dorey, but our priority is Mr. Flowers. We've conducted some sub-surface searches as well as surface searches all of today. If today we are not successful we will continue again tomorrow."

Jerry Rhaburn - Son
"There is only like 2 feet of visibility but its poor, you only could make out so much. Thats the reason we dive this area so much. We are not going to give up until we find him but it's really rough."

Lt. Gregory Soberanis - Flotilla Commander, BNCG
"Visibility is minimal as you can see the condition of the river. What we are experiencing is a lot of underwater debris, so we have to be careful. Safety is a priority for us as well as we conduct this operation."

The team which consists of 8 divers searched the entire area thoroughly where Flowers was believed to have gone under. No sight of his body or his canoe - and so they decided to take the search a little further downstream.

Christopher Guydis - Son
"We plan to do 400 yards more down the river. Actually we got some information where he turn over but we went up about 300-400 yards up the river from the area where they showed us, so we start dive from that area coming down. To this point we guarantee that he is not in this area so we will try another 400 yards down the river before it gets dark because right it's going to get dark pretty soon."

"I personally think that he drifted down stream. Its over 24 hours that he is under the water, so now that he have 24 hours I think that his body will start to swell and if he start to swell his body will rise and that will get the current to get him much further down. We are hoping that we would reach in the area before he gets further down."

Lt. Gregory Soberanis
"It will drift a little. From past experiences - we've been doing this for quite some time now, the body never drift at a great distance, so we are estimating that it is somewhere within the proximity of our dive. So it's just a matter of starting at the last known position that people knew he went down and begin to work our way down from there. I have never seen a body take more than 2 - 2 1/2 days to float, so we are expecting probably by tomorrow if we don't find the body it will float sometime tomorrow. We are going from where we are right now and we will be working about 200 meters downstream - that will be our dive area currently as I speak."

Monica Bodden
"You are planning to wrap up the search at what time?"

Lt. Gregory Soberanis
"Until last light. We are going to be out here until the last light today. At last light we will suspend operations and we will begin at first light tomorrow again."

And while Jerry and Chris are completely invested in the recovery effort the other side of that is that they could make the grimmest discovery of their lives.

Monica Bodden
"What is it like to be diving for your dad?"

Christopher Guydis - Son
"It's not easy, its emotional, but we need to find him."

Jerry Rhaburn - Son
"For me its nerve racking but I wish I could do more and I just sad I can't do more."

Monica Bodden
"In the back of your mind anything is possible. One of you guys might be the ones to find him. Are you prepared mentally and emotionally for that?"

Christopher Guydis - Son
"Yes we need to find him, so we are well prepared for it from 6 this morning. That's our plan."

Monica Bodden
"So the search will continue?"

Christopher Guydis - Son
"It will continue until it gets dark."

Strangely, his canoe which capsized with him and his wife in it, is also lost beneath the depths.

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