Youth drowns after jumping over Belcan Bridge
Jermaine Madrill
The excitement from Jouvert 2012 was shattered moments after it culminated. It has become a tradition for persons to jump off the Belcan Bridge and into the Belize River near the San Cas Plaza. But it turned tragic just around seven a.m., when seventeen year old Jermaine Madrill, a promising athlete of various sporting disciplines perished after he jumped into the river. Madrill, a recent graduate of Wesley College, was along with two other friends—Ryan and Calbert—when the incident happened. Family and friends as well as the Belize National Coast Guard immediately arrived at the scene and started to search for Madrill’s body; but it wasn’t until twenty-four hours after, on Sunday, that the body resurfaced near the Belcan Bridge. News Five spoke with Madrill’s father, Keith Madrill who recounted the efforts to recover the body. He also spoke of Jermaine’s passion for sports.
Keith Madrill, Father of Deceased
“Ryan jump first, Ryan say he thread water. While he di thread water, Jermaine stand up on the bridge fi jump. When ih start swim away, then Jermaine jump. He swim gone dah shore and he think Jermaine take too long and he ask Calbert; if you see Jermaine. They look and they neva see ahn. When they look again, dehn see ahn di come. But then they continue talk and when they look around again, dehn noh see ahn. So they say ih come up and wah lee bwai mi deh di hold ahn. And dah so dehn, Ryan start dive towards the area and by the time he reach di area, he look around and ih noh see ahn no more. I call my cousin Mally and tell ahn contact your bredda dehn weh have boat so that they can come and helpm me look fi Jermaine. And he say okay and heng up. And dah like lone thirty-second call I make and then I call the police station. From seven o’clock I get into the water and try look fi mi son and mi two cousins—Pablo and Joe—and when dehn come, dehn bring some ah fi dehn fisherman weh free dive a lot and dehn start help free dive. Sunday when I reach deh, I get with Pablo and we gone all the way down—the whole coast right down out to river mouth out; out to by Bird’s Isle and we circle dehn whole areas. And coming back, Uncle Richard called and say we find ahn and that was about seven o’clock and we come dah di boat.
Keith Madrill
Duane Moody
“Where was he found?”
Keith Madrill
“Right under the bridge. Right around where we mi deh di dive; so we noh sure how we couldn’t find ahn. But the thing is the water mi so dark—weh everybody mi di bathe in there the da, ih mi murky bad.—visibility mi poor—probalby five percent was the visibility. Jermaine takes sports serious—Jermaine dah like me; I athletic, Jermaine athletic and we take sports very serious. Jermaine noh like lose—either team or individually. 
If Jermaine di do long-jump and ih noh think dah wah good jump fi he, he wah walk back through the pit because he noh satisfied with that jump. Jermaine represent Belize from ih twelve years old. The first time, Jermaine catch the junior national team, U-19 softball team, at twelve while everybody else was fifteen, sixteen seventeen. Ih travel with track and field the year after that when ih thirteen; ih travel the next year with track and field again; with softball fourteen; then ih travel two times with volleyball with the junior national team. And from Belize enter the CODICADER games, Jermaine di travel with CODICADER di represent with track and field.”
Due to the state of decomposition, funeral services for Madrill will be held on Wednesday at ten a.m. at the St. John’s Cathedral.
What a shame for a promising life to be lost so young. RIP. My prayers for the family to be sustained through their loss.
JOUVERT … HAS NO PLACE IN BELIZEAN HISTORY nor CULTURE…
WE NEED TO DEVELOP OUR OWN CULTURE from OUR OWN HISTORY!!!
@ Earl Grey, JOUVERT, according to Wikipedia, is street carnival that arose in the time of slavery. It was introduced in the Caribbean and also BELIZE!!! Hence the reason it IS a part of OUR CULTURE AND HISTORY. You MUST, and i cant stress this anymore, research and provide accurate and factual comments on a public page which may be viewed by many citizens of this great country. So please do proper investigation before, thank you.
And as the resourceful individual i am, i am attaching the link to where i got my stats, if you understand what a link is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%27ouvert
If visibility was sooooooo bad why would anyone bathe in the water, let alone JUMP A FEW FEET from a bridge. RIP. People need to be rsponsible for their actions.
I have no problem with jouvert. It’s a fun thing to do, I get it. However, jumping off a bridge into murky waters with cables underneath and steel pipings clearly visible is the height of foolishness. Can the City Council or Government set some guidelines for ‘bridge jumping’. It may save some lives at next year’s jouvert. RIP Jermaine.
I am the older cousin n we love any celebration that happens in Belize. We, the family are not saying anything bad about it or what had happen. We know the kind of person jermaine was which is adventurous. We are not blaming anybody. We accept that its an accident. We leave any kind of consequences to God. So if those of you who have a lot to say which doesnt make any sence please keep it to your self if you dont know how we the family are looking at the situation.
Well said, Adrianna. Most of us took chances in our youth, and looking back may feel lucky to have survived what could have turned into an accident like this. My prayers, too, are with you and your family in this sad time.
My condolence goes out to Keith Madrill. I used to go to St. Johns Primary School with Keith back in the mid 80’s. Standard 6A, Miss Slusher was our teacher. I’ve migrated to the states shortly after and I’ve never seen Keith until he was profiled on News 5. Wow! I’m so sorry to hear about this tragedy. I feel your pain bro.
Main, this is truly a sad sad situation. He was my son’s and bro – in -law friend. I was not that close to Jermaine, but was close enough that my heart is still so heavy for this terrible loss of life. Indeed it may have been careless to jump, but which one of us haven’t done crazy things growing up? so instead of finding fault, lets just see how we can remedy the tradition in order to maybe save someone else’s life. My deepest sympathies goes out to all of Jermaine’s loved ones. He is a treasure that has been taken away from us and will be deeply missed. May God’s grace be upon us all.
This is truly a sad sad situation. Jermaine was my son and bro-in-law friend. I was not very close to him, but close enough that it caused my heart to be really heavy. Ppl may say that it was a careless act, but how many of us, if not all, have not done something crazy that could have possibly gotten us killed while growing up? I sure have. My deepest sympathies goes out to all his loved ones and to Ryan and Calbert too, I know they were close. He, Jermaine, is a treasure that was taken away from all of us and will be deeply missed. May God’s grace be upon us all.
Oh my GOD!This is sad. I went to the International Olympic Academy in Greece with Keith. I have been looking to find a means to contact him to get in touch and i found this online. Its such a freak thing. SADNESS!
Can someone get me an email address or some way to contact Keith?