THE POLICE have scaled down their week-long search for Dunrobin Primary School student Chadwin Phillips who was swept away by rain waters in the Sandy Gully last Monday.
The 10-year-old fell into the gully after making a $50 bet that he could jump across a tributary leading into it. The police have been sweeping the gully and surrounding areas daily since then.
"We've combed the area from Cassia Park (where Chadwin lived) to Seaview right along the coastline into the mangroves in an intense search and still we have turned up nothing," said Inspector Joshua Buchanan, sub-officer in charge of operations at the Marine Police.
Over the next few days, police will still periodically search the area for any clues, explained Inspector Buchanan. But the chances of recovering Chadwin's body are slim.
"We'll still look in the area and if anything turns up we'll take the necessary action, but that intense search has been called off," he said.
Chadwin's mother Patrica Brown said she still had hopes of finding him.
"I don't feel that we should give up like that. The greatest joy for me now would be if we find that child," she said tearfully, explaining that family and friends had been and would still be carrying out searches.
Ms. Brown also said that she did not believe her son would have deliberately jumped into the gully. "It's just that they are all children...he could have just slipped into the gully," she said of her youngest child.
"Chadwin was a conscious child," she said, "who strongly believed in God. There were times when he would come and give me words of comfort as a mother.
"He would say, 'Mommy, there isn't anything that God cannot do for us.' I'm just praying and hanging on through the grace of God," she whispered, her voice hoarse from constant crying.
