OAN Staff Abril Elfi
3:43 PM – Friday, January 31, 2025
An investigation has been launched after at least 19 dead bodies were found drifting at sea in the eastern Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
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On Wednesday, the St. Kitts and Nevis Coast Guard responded to a report of an abandoned drifting vessel off the coast of Nevis.
In the partially submerged boat, at least 19 decomposed bodies were discovered.
The vessel has been towed to St. Kitts, where police and medical officials are conducting investigations.
“It was a fishing vessel, which is not typically found in the Caribbean,” Police Commissioner James Sutton told The Associated Press. “We are not certain, but we believe that this vessel originated off the West African coast.”
The boat had been emanating a “foul odor” and the bodies were so “severely decayed” that even the genders of the deceased people were extremely difficult to identify, authorities noted.
Sutton added that officials now face the difficult task of identifying the bodies in order to inform their families of their “missing” relative(s). The “advanced state” of decomposition, he continued, has made that difficult as well.
Identification documents found on the ship suggest that some of the deceased individuals were from Mali, West Africa, according to the release.
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