Teen boy swept away by raging waves

Antoinette Rodgers, a Chester Cottage mother who lost her son in a freak drowning accident last Thursday, received the closure she prayed for on Tuesday when his body washed ashore.

“I just want some closure… if I get the body, they could get the body and find out how exactly he died. That is all I want to find out,” Rodgers told SEARCHLIGHT on Monday, outside her Chester home.

On Tuesday, however, police told SEARCHLIGHT that the body of Denzel Rodgers had washed up in Georgetown.

During Monday’s interview, Rodgers said she didn’t know her son had gone to the beach, but ran into her 16-year-old son at the Mount Young, Black Point beach on Thursday, April 6, after she was repeatedly asked to go there by her daughter.

While swimming, Rodgers said she recognized one of her son’s friends on the beach, which prompted her to come out of the water and go in search of her son, whom she found shortly after.

“He seemed normal, so I walk in the sea with him….

“They (the two boys) end up walking out the water, but when they came back, I told them don’t come in because the water felt a little rough,” the mother explained, adding that her daughter was also grabbing at her because of the sea swells.

She said she went ashore to ensure that the children did not return to the water.

“I see him standing on a stone and I turn around to talk to a next girl because it had people on the beach. By the time I look back so, less than five minutes, I seeing the other boy alone, so I staring at the water; I’m not seeing Denzel at all, so I started walking towards the boy.” Rodgers said the other boy did not alert anyone, he just walked and when she caught up with him, she repeatedly questioned him as to her son’s whereabouts, to which he replied, “A wave come and it hit Denzel and I tried to push him.”

The Chester Cottage mother said she did not really understand what he meant, but concluded that he tried to help her son to no avail.

“I ain’t see Denzel after that – I ain’t see no hand, usually when somebody drown you’d see a hand or some bubbles or something – nothing after that, nothing, absolutely nothing. I waited to see if the body would float,” she recalled.

Rodgers said a team from the Coastguard came for short periods on two consecutive days, but stayed out at sea.

The mother of two, who was clearly shaken up by the incident, told SEARCHLIGHT she only hoped that her son’s body would be recovered.

“Right now I’m just hoping they could just find the body. I can’t hope for nothing more, I can’t do nothing … I ain’t think it have no miracle they could find him alive out there.

“I just hoping somebody could just come to shore and look properly….”

Rodgers disclosed that she had been walking along the coast between Georgetown and Colonarie in search of her son’s body since he disappeared.

“I don’t know; maybe if the Coastguard had come to shore to find out where exactly he went down… It had a big stone there and if a wave hit you and you hit your head, obvious you going to get unconscious, but if he was there, I think they would have find him; but none of them came close.”

Rodgers said one concerned villager dove into the water after persons said they saw a body, but he could not have done anything further because of the strong current.

“I can’t bring him back alive; all the tears in the world not going to bring him back. I don’t know. I still don’t understand it because I didn’t see it, I was right there and I didn’t see a thing. Now you imagine how I suppose to feel?” said Rodgers, trying to hold back her tears.

Rodgers remembers her son as quiet and friendly, but who kept to himself most times.

Denzel was a fifth form student at the North Union Secondary School who aspired to become a chef.(AS)