5 year old drowns in Burrell Boom Pond

David Alexander Cruz

Even as the nation struggles to deal with the killing by drowning of three small children one week ago, another family is grieving the loss of their only son to drowning. This latest tragedy occurred in the village of Burrell Boom on Saturday afternoon; it has left a young mother inconsolable after her son, five year old David Alexander Cruz, drowned in a small pond in the back yard of their home. Mike Rudon headed out to Boom this morning and has the story.

Mike Rudon, Reporting

David Alexander Cruz had just turned five. He was full of life, and under the watchful eyes of his mother, loved playing in the yard of their home in Burrell Boom with his older sisters, one six and the other eight.

That’s what he was doing on Saturday at around three thirty, while his mother, Raquel Carcamo struggled to extinguish a bush fire which had started right in the front of their yard and threatened their small wooden home. While she was distracted, the children made their way to the back of the yard, to this pond.

Just minutes later one of David’s sisters ran to get their mother, telling her that David was in the pond and she could only see his hand. She ran to the pond, but by that time David had gone beneath the murky waters, leaving his clothes here under this coconut tree.

Twenty-five year old Raquel Carcamo ran across the road to get help, and one of the workers from the Black Orchid Resort immediately started searching in the pond, along with the Police officer stationed in Burrell Boom who had been called.

At around four thirty the worker felt the body of the small child under his feet, and David’s mother dived in and brought out the lifeless body of her son. They tried to resuscitate him, but it was useless.

Today, a family member would tell us only that the entire family is still in shock, David’s mother grief-stricken and his father, who was at work when it happened, struggling to come to grips with the loss of their youngest child and only son.

We were told that his mother is blaming herself, saying that if she could only do it again, she would have let the house burn, and saved her son. Mike Rudon for News Five.

A family member told us that they expect to get the body back today, so they can make arrangements for burial.