Saddlers man drowns at Cockle Shell Beach

By Stanford Conway
Editor-in-Chief-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A male resident of Saddlers Village died by drowning this afternoon (Nov. 16) at Cockle Shell Beach in the Southeast Peninsula of St. Kitts.

The motionless body of 52-year-old Gerome Norford was discovered sometime after 4:00 this afternoon between some rocks close to the shore of the Caribbean Sea in the vicinity of Cockle Shell Beach.

On arrival, SKNVibes met a police officer on the scene along with a unit from the Emergency Medical Services, a vessel with members of the Coast Guard and a few individuals from a group of which Norford was a part.

According to members of the group, they were playing a game of dominoes when a young man who was strolling on the beach shouted to them that a man was in the water between some rocks and he seemed to be dead.

One individual said she did not believe the young man and thought he was joking. But after he continued shouting “it’s a dead man”, they abandoned the game, went to area where the body was seen and discovered it was a member of the picnic group - Gerome Norford.

Another individual said Norford loved playing dominoes and noted that after his turn in the game ended he ate some food and said he was going to “wash off”. 

“The game was exciting and nobody missed him until we were alerted by a young man in the group that a motionless body was in the sea,” the group member said.

Norford’s body was found some 50 metres from the point where he entered the water at Cockle Shell Beach going towards Banana Beach.

District Medical Officer Dr. Mervyn Laws was contacted and, after examining the body, he pronounced Norford dead and indicated no foul play was suspected. However, a senior police officer told SKNVibes that investigations are ongoing as they await results of a post mortem.

Gerome Norford’s death brings to seven the total number of persons drowned in the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis for this year.

On February 19, it was reported that Keita Williams and Kasim Maynard were feared drowned in the Atlantic Ocean around the Canoe Bay area in the Southeast Peninsula of St. Kitts. On March 28, Osama Hadi, a student of Windsor University School of Medicine, was also reported drowned in the sea at North Friars Bay in St. Kitts, while Mervin Mitchum of Cayon was feared drowned on August 8 at Hermitage Bay in St. Kitts.

Approximately eight days after (Aug. 13), five-year-old Malique Thomas’ body was discovered in a swimming pool at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort, and his death was followed by a 16-month-old boy, whose body was found in a swimming pool at his parents’ residence in Gingerland, Nevis on September 3.

To date, the bodies of Williams, Maynard and Mitchum have not been recovered; however, this media house is uncertain about the recovery of Hadi’s body.