Post-mortem examinations on the bodies of Jabez Robinson and Jamal Codrington, the two children found dead last Friday night in a refrigerator in a Norton Street yard will be performed tomorrow.
The two young boys were discovered by Sonia Codrington, the mother of 4-year-old Jamal - (Robinson was aged seven), after 9:30 pm that day following a frantic search, which started during the afternoon hours in the neighbourhood and spread to several city wards. The refrigerator was not working at the time of the incident.
Meanwhile, both families and some persons living in the area continue to speculate on the circumstances under which the children met their demise.
Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday, Codrington’s mother said she is still in shock and has been lapsing in and out of consciousness ever since discovering the bodies of her son and the other child.
The woman related that on the day of the tragedy, she had been selling in her shop at about 2:30 pm when she noticed the rain drizzling and immediately went into her yard and picked up some clothing she had earlier washed and hung out to dry.
Shortly thereafter, Codrington said, Jamal called out to her saying they had a customer and she went off to serve that person before going upstairs to pack away the clean clothing and tidy up.
According to Codrington, when she left to go upstairs, Jamal and Jabez were playing with an older child named Antonio and after she finished her work, she called out to her older son telling him to bring his brother so she could bathe him. But her older son did not know where Jamal was and thus the search began.
“I start looking all over the yard fuh [Jamal]. Then I look on the road, and my child don’ go out on the road and so I went to Antonio aunty and ask she fuh dem, and she say she ain’t see them,” the distraught woman recalled. She said that she even searched along D’Urban Street and later went looking along the seawall and other parts of the city using her motorcycle in a frenzied effort to find her child and Robinson.
After no sign of either child, Codrington said she returned to her yard and began searching again and acting on a hunch, she decided to look into the old refrigerator where she made the gruesome find.
“I scream out, look Jamal dem deh heh, and then I black out,” Codrington stated. She indicated that the police have since questioned several relatives and taken statements.
And Orden Robinson, Jabez’s father, said the incident has confused and upset him. The saddened man, who earns his living as a vendor, said he first learnt that his son was missing when he came home from work around 6:45 pm on Friday. He recounted what he initially told this newspaper, adding that “...time will reveal everything.”