What was supposed to be a day of relaxation on February 1st, the 188th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, turned into a tragedy for Jean Arvin Jolicoeur, a 20-year-old resident of Roche-Bois. He and his friends had gone to Cascade Kaya in Beaux-Songes to refresh themselves. At around 4pm, Arvin Jolicoeur, who was swimming, disappeared from the surface of the water. His body was recovered shortly after 8pm on the evening of Wednesday 1 February. An autopsy performed this Thursday morning, February 2, at the Victoria Hospital morgue in Candos attributed his death to asphyxiation due to drowning.
It was around 4pm on Wednesday 1 February that the alert of Arvin Jolicoeur’s disappearance from Cascade Kaya in Beaux Songes was reported to the Bambous police station. Immediately a team of police officers, led by Sergeant Mahess, went to the location at Cremation lane, Beaux Songes, not far from Casela Nature Park in Cascavelle. A 24 year old self-employed woman and a 20 year old cabinet maker, both residents of the locality were to tell these officers that they were in the company of a friend Arvin Jolicoeur, who was living occasionally in Beaux Songes at the young woman’s home when Arvin Jolicoeur who was swimming disappeared from the water.
The men of the Swift Water Rescue Unit of the Mauritius Fire and Rescue Service, divers from the National Coast Guard’s MARCOS commando and men from the Mauritius Police Force’s Intervention Group were called in to search. It was shortly after 8pm that the lifeless body of Arvin Jolicoeur was recovered. He was then taken to the Candos Hospital morgue for an autopsy. The autopsy, carried out by Dr Sudesh Kumar Gungadin, head of the police forensic department, on Thursday morning, 2 February, attributed the death to asphyxia due to drowning.
An investigation has been initiated at the Bamboo police station to ascertain the exact circumstances of the tragedy.
