Drowning in Placencia and Corozal over the Weekend

Joseph Myvett

Two people lost their lives by drowning over the weekend. Juan Avendano was with a team operating on some pipes in the Placencia Lagoon on Sunday when he went under. Divers in the area later helped retrieve his body. In Corozal, an evening of socializing on the Corozal seaside proved fatal for San Antonio Village resident Elia Villanueva. ACP Joseph Myvett spoke on both tragedies.

ACP Joseph Myvett, Head, National Crimes Investigation Branch

“Shortly after one p.m. police were alerted of a drowning in the Placencia lagoon where they learnt that one Juan Carlos Avendano, eighteen years of Silk Grass address, was along with a work crew who had gone to work on some pipes in the lagoon. At the time, he was accompanied by four others, including the supervisor of that job. We later interviewed the supervisor who indicated that when he got this group of work men he had questioned them as to whether or not all those persons were swimmers, to which all those persons responded yes. As a result shortly after ten they made their way into the lagoon walking towards the pipe when somewhere half way while getting deep, Juan Carlos Avendano then decided to turn back leaving the crew to move forward. When they looked around they saw him struggling for help.  That is when he went under water and did not resurface.    Also yesterday, sometime around one p.m., police responded to a drowning incident in the round house area on the Corozal seaside, where upon their arrival, they saw the lifeless body of Elia Villanueva, forty three years of San Antonio village Corozal on the banks, where CPR was being administered to him by persons who were also swimming and tried to assist him in returning back to shore. What we had learnt so far is that he had gone out swimming, and was having some difficulty, and tried to return to shore and that is when he went under water and did not resurface.”