Student Drowns in Mopan River

Michael Quintanilla

A third-form student of Eden High School in Benque Viejo del Carmen drowned in the Mopan River on Sunday while swimming with friends. Family members believe that seventeen year old Michael Quintanilla caught a cramp while attempting to cross the river.  They got the call at around four Sunday evening, after his friends had tried unsuccessfully to save him. Police received the call at around the same time, and found Quintanilla’s lifeless body on the bank of the river.

Daniel Arzu

ASP Daniel Arzu, Officer-in-Charge, Benque

“There we observed a male person lying along the banks of the river. Information received is that prior he was socializing along with other male persons and they were bathing and as a result he submerged beneath the river and was subsequently brought up back but at that point it appears that he may have succumbed. So therefore he was taken out of the river and was put along the bank and was later transported to the San Ignacio Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.”

Alfredo Quintanilla

Alfredo Quintanilla, Father of Deceased

“When I arrived one of the fathers of the other kids that was with my son told me of the unfortunate incident…that they were swimming, that they had been at the river for like forty minutes…they went across to the other side of the river and everything was going fine until they decided to cross back to this side of the river. What we believe is that he caught a cramp while coming back because they had just had lunch a couple minutes before, and that’s what the post-mortem examination also revealed when we were at the morgue.”

Miguel Quintanilla was buried this afternoon in Benque Viejo. He was an only child.