The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

A GRIEVING wife says she keeps expecting her husband to walk through their front door, days after he was found submerged in waters in Eleuthera in what police believe was a drowning after he slipped and fell while collecting salt water.

Lynn and Derek Rahming had recently marked their tenth wedding anniversary at their Waterford home. Mrs Rahming said the shock of his death only began to settle over the weekend.

“I'm always used to him being home and yesterday, when he didn't come it was really, really, really bad,” she said, holding back tears.

She recalled that on the morning of Thursday, December 4, her husband walked her to the porch as usual before she left for work. When she returned from her security shift, she realised he had never come home. She said he normally called throughout the day to check on her.

Hours later, she was told her husband’s car had been spotted parked at the gate of a nearby marina — lights on, trunk open, and the key still in the ignition. She went there with the person who found it, noting the location was only about a two-minute drive from their home.

At the scene, she saw his vehicle and a water jug she believed he intended to use to collect saltwater. She called out his name repeatedly but heard nothing. She reported him missing to the police.

According to preliminary police reports, shortly after 7pm, officers, acting on information, arrived at a creek, where they found an unresponsive man submerged in the water. He was retrieved and later pronounced dead by a doctor. Police said initial information suggests the deceased was the missing man from Waterford.

Mrs Rahming said police responded promptly. A diver located her husband’s body.

“The diver said it was like steps away from where the water bottle was, which you could see right there. It was not far, not in any deep water. The water was like ankle deep,” she said.

She said she was overwhelmed when the diver told her her husband had been found.

“He was turned face down,” she said emotionally. “The police and everybody, they went in. I went in the jeep and sit down, because I did not want to see him like that.”

Mr Rahming’s body was found about two hours after he was reported missing. Mrs Rahming believes he may have slipped and fallen while trying to fetch seawater.

She remembered him as the “life of the party” and a loving husband who helped raise a blended family.