Trelawny family hopes for missing fisherman’s return

Relatives of missing Trelawny fisherman Dennis Clarke are clinging to hope of finding him alive.

Clarke's niece Kelesha Stubbs told THE WEEKEND STAR, "We would feel much better if he came back home because everybody is sad since [he disappeared]. Everyone just have this sad look because we want to see him."

Clarke, 58, a fisherman of Green Park in the parish, left home about 6 a.m. on Sunday to go fishing with his brother at the Falmouth Fishing Village. However, concerns were raised after his brother never met up with him and Clarke did not return home that evening.

"From Sunday he leave say him gone a sea and all now I can't see him, looking Monday I can't see him so I said 'You know what? I am going in town to find out what's going on', and when I went there, I saw no signs," said Stubbs, explaining that she visited the fishing village in Falmouth, located about 10 minutes from Green Park.

"I asked around [at the fishing village] and they said no they don't see him. So I just don't understand. We went out there again and still don't see nothing so everyone is asking where is he."

The search took a turn on Wednesday when the family discovered his belongings along the seaside.

"We saw the bag with his clothes and his slippers. It's his one strap bag, and then that brown shopping bag with his clothes and so. That's up by the school way where he always put his things," she said, referring to Falmouth All-Age School. The discover offers some measure of hope.

"This mean that he did left out to go to sea then because the clothes that he wear is in the bag. But the ones he would dive in are missing," Stubbs reasoned.

However, she lamented that divers and members of the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard have not been able to locate him at sea. Stubbs said that Clarke has no children but shared a close bond with the family.

"Everyone thinks I am his child, that's the relationship we have," she said as she trailed off.

As the relatives sat at their home, a family friend, Ronnalie Green, said no one saw Clarke going into the water.

"He used to go fishing by himself but him stop that ... him don't usually pass the reef," she said.

Green added that on Wednesday, someone said they saw him at the cays.

"The other fishermen and his brother went to look. They don't see him or any boat, but they said that's a location he can swim to," Green said.