Wife has suspicions over husband’s watery death

Andrea Harris believes there is something “fishy” surrounding the discovery of her husband’s body which was found floating face down, near the Bridgetown Fisheries Complex on Sunday.

The grieving woman is however awaiting the findings of an autopsy to tell her how 75-year-old Joseph Harris died.

Speaking to Barbados TODAY from the home at Barbarees Gardens, St Michael which she shared with her spouse, 48-year-old Andrea said she has a strong feeling that there is more to her husband’s death than a drowning.

“I know he couldn’t swim,” she admitted.

“The police say them coming so when them come I will know if I right or wrong. A man will just drown just so? And the way that I see the man look yesterday when them take he out the water, the man dark. He lip was red and his face was dark.

“That can’t happen yesterday, that had to happen Saturday night. And everybody saying one thing. Something looks fishy about what happen yesterday. There is something fishy about this and other people feel so too, it ain’t only me,” Andrea said.

Andrea said the last time she saw her husband of four years was on Saturday, around 12 p.m., at Ham Cutter Alley in The City. He was at a shop consuming alcoholic beverages. She said the next time she saw Harris was when his body was being pulled from the careenage.

The widow said her husband made the choice to spend most of his time staying on a boat at the market, even when he was not at sea.

She said: “He don’t even come home. If I want to see him, I used to have to go down there. He would sleep in the boat and don’t come home and everybody used to talk about it. Talking to he ain’t making no sense because he did like his own way. As you talk to he, he ready to fly up.”

Although she has five children from a previous relationships, Andrea said Harris did not have any of his own.

“Really and truly now I have to look for money to bury him, but I don’t work nowhere. You does got friends when you living but when you dead you ain’t got none. He don’t get pension or nothing so. He never pay national insurance neither,” she said.

Police reports said Harris’ body was seen after a fisherman went to his boat which was located in the area, and saw what appeared to be a body floating face down in the water. He informed the security guard on duty at the complex and the police were summoned.

(anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)