Family fears foul play in drowning
Caye Caulker police and the Castro family of Belize City have still not recovered the body of nineteen-year-old Andrew Castro, presumed drowned after he fell off his boat over the weekend. According to the family, Castro who is the captain of the vessel named Liz was chartered by a group of friends to go to the island on Easter Sunday. It was on the return trip that night that the boat crashed into an unidentified object just off Caye Chapel and Castro fell overboard. Today, the family told News 5 that they do not know what happened and have become increasingly suspicious by what they claim to be conflicting reports given by one of the passengers to the authorities.
Lucia Castro, Mother
“My son is a fisherman, he knows the sea, he know exactly what he di do out there.”
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Lucia Castro is still trying to find out what could have possibly happened to cause her son to fall overboard and drown.
Lucia Castro
“Well we di try to contact the Maritime Wing to make a search, my husband gone with his friends, four boats gone this morning and yesterday about two boats gone. They find the cover for the machine weh drop, according to them, and the rag weh he got tie up inna his head when he gone.”
Castro says she believes her son may have been drinking, but does not believe her son’s death was the result of an accident because of the differing accounts about what happened at sea. According to Castro, around eleven that night they received a call from one of the passengers who told them that something terrible had happened.
Lucia Castro
“He tell my husband, sad news, accident happen. He seh, your son crash into a wall and the boat, when the boat slam into the wall he flip over and they can’t find the body and later on you hear he swim, he noh wah come into the boat. Then he went to the policeman that side and mek a report seh that the machine stop work. When he crash, the machine stop work and Andrew open the machine, start to work on the machine, check the machine, what wrong with the machine because it can’t start again and he drop overboard. Then when we find out, they got the machine di work and nothing wrong with the machine. Dah a new brand machine, just about two months old or three months, so nothing wrong with the machine.”
“And then he seh that how the bwai di sleep dah the bow. He noh know nothing about weh gone on, the other one di sleep and he gone sleep with the next young bwai and when he do crash, he flip over the bwai into the sea. Then when he hear the sound and he gone check see, Andrew noh deh there. Then when we see Andrew, he di swim away from the boat. He tell Andrew, come, come, he swim away from the boat like he noh want come in the boat. I noh understand that at all, dah complicated thing this.”
Castro says she is also concerned about an argument the passenger claims her son had an argument with another young man over who should drive the boat.
Lucia Castro
“But my son noh allow nobody to touch the machine because it belongs to him and then he takes care of what belongs to him and what dah he and his father’s things. So he noh left nobody fi touch it. According to him, he seh that the other young bwai want drive and he noh want to give ah the machine, so they battle up one another, things like that, so I noh know how the thing goh.”
