00:00The almost day-long search for devoted mother and grandmother Tara Lochan Singh
00:06ends in heartbreak. This as the 47-year-old's body was fished out of the devilish depths of
00:13Matura River, exactly where she was last seen hoisting her six-year-old granddaughter to safety
00:20on a bamboo embankment before being drawn in to the murky water.
00:25What was meant to be a peaceful family outing on the first day of the emancipation long weekend
00:31turned into a nightmare. Lochan Singh's daughter-in-law tells the Express even as the group enjoyed the
00:37water, her daughter's slipper was swept away and Lochan Singh reached out to get it. She, the child
00:45and Lochan Singh's husband were pulled in the moving water. In a final act of heroism and even as she
00:52stared death in its face. Lochan Singh pushed her beloved granddaughter onto the bamboo patch before
00:59being sucked downwards. She briefly told her husband, who was right behind her, she was being pulled down.
01:06He too found himself fighting against the deathly pull. But their fate was not meant to be the same.
01:14He too struggled against the water's deadly force but managed to fight his way to safety.
01:19Tara, on the other hand, was not seen alive again.
01:24By this time, first responders were alerted and a search and rescue immediately launched.
01:29The police, family, hunters search and rescue, bystanders and nearby residents all pitched in
01:36to locate the missing woman. As the day drew quickly into night, hope too faded.
01:43The search was called off at 3am on Saturday and resumed by daybreak. Shamsuddin Ayoub and his team
01:51said they suspected the body to be lodged in the dense bamboo bordering the river's plunge along the bank.
01:58We were moving out of the rubber, the bamboo, which we believe she went underneath.
02:03Because since yesterday, we were removing that bamboo.
02:06And by removing the bamboo, a short while this morning, around 11 o'clock in the year round,
02:13the coast guard found and they told us that we came out of the water.
02:19They were diving. And by diving, they saw the body below the bamboo patch.
02:24An autopsy will take place next week as the woman's community joins in mourning her loss.
02:31She is said to be an avocado saleswoman and was remembered by family and neighbours
02:36as a devoted grandmother, known for her kindness and generosity.
02:42Shortly before she went missing and even as the search was ongoing,
02:46her son, Brandon Lochencing, posted a plea to Facebook saying,
02:50Mommy, I will find you. Please come back to me.
02:53Though paying with her life, relatives credit the grandmother for her quick thinking,
02:58courage and the love she embodied until the very end.
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