The bodies of 20-year-old Lyodisa Waldron and her fiancé, 29-year-old Special Constable Andri “Bobby” Francis were recovered moments ago.
The couple went missing on Sunday afternoon off Unity Beach, East Coast Demerara. Adding to the tragedy, relatives confirmed that Waldron, a local sales assistant, was pregnant. The couple had been expecting their first child in August.
According to official updates from the Guyana Police Force Regional Division Number Four ‘C’, the incident occurred at approximately 14:00 hours on Sunday, May 31, 2026. Initial enquiries reveal that the young couple was swimming at Unity Beach when the afternoon took a perilous turn. Waldron began drifting outward toward the Atlantic Ocean and called out for help, prompting Francis to immediately rush to his fiancée’s aid in an attempt to pull her back to safety. However, both individuals were quickly overpowered by strong undercurrents and pulled beneath the surface, disappearing from view. While beachgoers raised an immediate alarm, initial sweeps of the beachfront and surrounding waters by onlookers and early responders yielded no sign of the pair.
As the search extended into Tuesday morning, the victims’ families faced agonizing logistical hurdles. Grieving relatives reported a frustrating lack of immediate state resources, learning early in the morning that authorities were unable to deploy watercraft due to a lack of fuel. Leader of the Opposition Azruddin Mohamed recalled speaking to the mother of Francis that morning, who noted she would be glad if assistance was offered in terms of a boat because the police didn’t have gas for their vessel at around 8:30 AM.
Faced with this delay, the family reached out to Leader of the Opposition Azruddin Mohamed for urgent assistance. Mohamed responded by chartering three local fishermen and their vessels to launch a private search party. Family members joined the chartered fishermen on the water, and it was this community-led team that ultimately located the bodies of the deceased. Following the discovery, police forensic and crime scene investigators utilized one of the chartered vessels to venture out and bring the bodies back to shore.
Even after the bodies were recovered, relatives faced further distress due to logistical delays. After the bodies were brought in at the Unity Koker, they had to be transported to the Mahaica Koker, where grieving family members were left waiting on the ground for 45 minutes for a hearse to arrive
