UNBEARABLE PAIN - Clarendon mother gutted after son’s body found in sewage pond

"Mommy, you cyaa carry me with you?" were the last words Anika Davidson said her six-year-old son, Oshane 'OJ' Banton, said to her on Friday.

Oshane was reported missing on Friday around 3:30 p.m after his mother failed to locate him upon her return home. A search launched to find the missing boy ended in tragedy on Saturday afternoon, when his lifeless body was found at a sewage pond in Lionel Town, Clarendon.

The distraught mother, who cried inconsolably when she spoke with THE STAR, said that the decision to leave Oshane home that day is one she will regret for the rest of her life.

Oshane and his three-year-old sister were left in the care of their grandmother while their mother attended to business in the parish capital.

"Him beg me fI come a May Pen wid me, and me say, 'Baby, me soon come, me just a go pay a bill, baby'. Him go to me mother and a whisper and say, 'Grandma, ask mommy if me can come wid her.' "

Davidson shared that though the hours in which Oshane was missing were torturous, finding him dead was the last thing on her mind. She is convinced that her child was abducted from his home by persons who may have had plans to demand a ransom for his return.

"Me know a somebody tek him, but me a say a money them want, and them a go call and ask fe money."

The sewage plant where Oshane's body was found is located some 200 metres from his home. His mother said that her young son would not have ventured out of the yard and neither would he go to the sewage plant, which is fenced and is not often frequented by children.

Better them did kill me

"If you ask anybody in the community, them a go tell you say me son a good pikney and him friendly with everybody. Me nuh do nobody nutten, me nuh owe nobody, and them take me pikney kill him, it better them did kill me, " said the weeping mom.

Davidson told THE STAR that Oshane's body was found following a second search of the sewage plant. An initial search, which was conducted by the police and involved members of the community, had failed to locate the boy's body.

"The police say me must check back the sewage place and me father say it lock, but him a go look for the person weh have the key. A s**t water them dash me pikney inna. A somebody weh know him call him 'cause him nah go to stranger, and him nah go nowhere in a underpants," she bemoaned.

"A beat them beat me pikney. Him whole face swell up. Me nuh see, but me co-worker say some a him teeth gone. Wah me son could a do you ?

Oshane, a first-grade student at Watsonton Primary, had dreams of becoming a police or soldier. "Him always say him waa work fe give him mother money," said Davidson.

The Clarendon police are investigating the matter.