Rescuers search for the missing. Photo: Rozano Alie
PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - The Knysna-Plett Herald's reporter at the scene of last night's drowning incident, Rozano Alie, spoke to relatives and friends of the people feared drowned in an effort to puzzle together the events leading to the tragedy.
According to reports eight people were fishing in the river last night, two of them in a canoe alongside a motorised fishing boat carrying six people.
At about 18:00 the rowers moved to shore when they realised they could not hear the boat's engine anymore. Within minutes they received a phone call from one of the people on the boat, alerting them that the boat had become stuck on a sandbank and that the boat's engine had failed, and then everything became quiet.
Running up and down the shore in the dark, they could see neither the boat, nor the people. The NSRI was alerted at about 19:00 and the crew deployed.
The body of a 43-year-old woman, Leticia Wildeman was recovered in the surf at the river mouth about an hour later. The body of her son, eight-year-old Luaan was recovered in the surf between the two river mouths at about 09:00 this morning. Their distraught husband and father, Dawid Wildeman has been treated for shock and taken home.
Still missing are Leticia Wildeman's two brothers-in-law Llewelyn and Jeffrey Wildeman, her sister-in-law's son, Henry Waits and a friend Roland Fiegeland.
An extensive search continues.
- Knysna/Plett Herald
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