Bodies Of Mother And Son Recovered
Two of the five bodies were removed from the rubble last night (Wednesday) – one at 10pm and the second shortly thereafter.
Further recovery has stopped for a time because of instability at the site.
After the recoveries, Attorney General Dale Marshall explained that the mother and child probably died instantly during the initial collapse. It has been reported by numerous witnesses that the husband Donavere Codrington 30 was alive for hours after the initial collapse – until a second major collapse sent large boulders into the hole.
The above information was current as of 7:30am this morning, Thursday, August 30, 2007
Our blogging friends at Barbados Underground and Cheese On Bread! have written extensive posts overnight and both are worth reading.
Cheese-on-Bread! has posted a detailed and moving account of her visit to the scene The Sad Story Of Arch Cot, while David at Barbados Underground stayed up into the wee hours of this morning following the developments.
CBC has a day old article that is worth reading for insight into the continuing dangers facing the recovery team – Day Four At Britton’s Cross Road Tragedy
Here is the story from this morning’s Nation News…
Body Find
AFTER THE REMOVAL of tonnes of rubble and 90 hours of digging and searching, a recovery team last night found two of the five bodies of a family who perished in an apartment block collapse last Sunday. Reliable sources told the DAILY NATION that the bodies were those of a female adult and a male child. Those who died were Donavere, 30, and Cassandra Codrington, 27 and their children Shaquanda,7, Shaquille, 3, and Yashiro, 1.
The discoveries were made within an hour-and-half of each other – the first around 10:05 p.m. and the second at 11:30 p.m. Word of a possible discovery spread quickly when around 10 p.m. a forensic team, headed by Cheryl Corbin journeyed to a platform ledge where Barbados Defence Force and fire officers had been labouring all day, by hands to clear the debris.
Soon after, a metal tray was hurriedly taken to the scene and lowered into the cavity and raised for examination by the forensic team. Soon Minister of Home Affairs Dale Marshall sent word that he would be holding his final media briefing for the evening shortly.
He told reporters at 10.55 p.m.: “. . . We have discovered the remains of one individual. Those remains have not as yet been removed from the cavern. Of course there are forensic procedures that have to be followed.”
Forty-five minutes later another body was dicovered close to the first find.
The remains were found about 60 feet below the surface where the Arch Cot, Brittons X Road residence stood up to 4:30 a.m. last Sunday.
“As you would anticipate, after four days underground, it [the body] was in an advanced state of decomposition,” said emergency coordinator Dr Brian Charles, adding that the remains would not be removed until after the forensic work.
The families had met with counsellors and forensic experts at Sherbourne Conference Centre in the evening.
“We spoke to them in detail and answered their questions so they would be well conditioned to deal with the circumstances,” Minister of Social Transformation Trevor Prescod said.
In a telephone interview earlier in the evening, Donavere’s grandmother Sheila Codrington, remained hopeful.
The bodies were however discovered exactly where the sniffer dogs, brought in from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue team had indicated. With the two discoveries, authorities were last night stepping up their efforts to find the three remaining bodies buried under the rubble.
… Read the above story and others at The Nation News. (link here)
Barbados Free Press 