Family mourns loss of role model

Patrick’s mother, Merle, and several other relatives were too traumatised to speak but a cousin, Gerald Lendore, described his cousin as a "role model".

"In Barataria here, Yohance was always the leader, who took charge. Yohance had a big heart, nothing was too much for him. He just cannot be replaced." Lendore added: "Any weekend when all of us are off we had a sworn commitment which was carried out without fail to spend the weekend at the beach by our grandmother in Cedros.

"Now that will not happen again and I do not know if I can go there without Vaughn and Yohance. I just do not know what to do, I feel empty,"said the teary-eyed man who revealed that he missed out on the death trip simply because he worked a different shift that night.

He described Patrick as "the most genuine, sincere, loving, kind committed person you could ever meet."

A close family friend said: "He was family and cared deeply for his sisters and relatives. He was the eldest and only boy of four children. "His mother faced the death of her husband four years ago and was now coming to grips with the loss. Now she has to deal with this tragedy. The whole family is crushed by this death which should not have been." The family is awaiting the arrival of two of his sisters and relatives from overseas before funeral arrangements are made.