The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AN 18-year-old who could not swim drowned in the South Beach Canal after somehow entering the water with friends, leaving his family struggling to reconcile conflicting accounts of his final moments.

His mother, Monique Alfred, said she remains confused about the circumstances surrounding the death of Ryan Alfred, who drowned on Friday after he and three friends were reportedly caught in strong currents near the canal’s sandbanks.

While one person told Ms Alfred that her son had been reluctant to enter the water, she said others gave different versions of what happened.

“My son cannot swim just like me,” she said. “He’ll go around the beach but he's not going in the water because he can't swim. Something ain’t adding up.”

Police said Alfred was swimming with a 17-year-old girl and two 19-year-old men when the group was caught in strong currents.

One of the men told police he rescued the girl after seeing her in distress and brought her safely to shore. When he returned to help Alfred, both men were swept farther out by the current.

Alfred disappeared beneath the water and could not be found.

Police launched a search with assistance from Royal Bahamas Defence Force divers after being alerted to the incident shortly after 7pm. His body was later recovered about 300 feet from the shoreline, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Ms Alfred, a 41-year-old mother of three, said she had grown concerned earlier that day when repeated calls and text messages to her son went unanswered.

Alfred’s father also tried to contact him before calling one of his sisters to ask whether she knew where he was.

One of Alfred’s friends eventually answered his phone and told the family to go to the police station because “something bad happened to Ryan”.

“My daughter called and said ‘mummy, something wrong’. I didn’t have no ride and their daddy went there. I called him and he explained to me what happened,” Ms Alfred said, adding that police were questioning Alfred’s father and friends when she arrived at the station. At that stage, her son’s body had not been recovered.

She said officers later returned from the scene and confirmed his death.

“The first thing I asked them ‘was my baby okay, Ryan okay’ and they said ‘no Ryan is dead’ and I said ‘what,’ and as a mother, I was at that station like crazy crying.”

Ms Alfred described her son as a quiet young man who loved video games and was well known in the Johnson Road community.

“He was my everything,” she said. “I know when he was in that water, I know my baby was thinking about me. He was that type of person.”

Alfred, a 2025 graduate of Doris Johnson High School, had recently begun working at Super Value and was apprenticing as a welder under a businessman in the St Anne’s community.

His mother said raising him and his siblings had not been easy, but he always tried to help the family.

One of their final conversations concerned his plans to buy school supplies for his 11-year-old sister.

“He was saying, ‘Mummy, I gone help you with my 11-year-old sister because I know you're not working,” she said. “I gon’ help you out and I think Clarks was on sale, and he was saying he's gonna get the shoes. He's like, ‘Mummy, what her size is and everything’.”

Ms Alfred said her son left for work after that conversation, and it was the last time she spoke to him.

“My son was 18. He had plans. He wanted to help me take me on my situation,” she said.

She said Alfred’s father was also struggling with the death.

His sister, Monica Alfred, said she had been unable to eat or sleep since the tragedy and wished she had been able to say goodbye.

“I'm gonna miss the phone calls, the texting, the getting offs, the cracking jokes, the hugs, me being the annoying sister but I thank God for the 18 years he give us him,” she said.

She also questioned how her brother came to be in the water, saying he did not like it.

Tributes were posted on social media following Alfred’s death.

St Anne’s MP Adrian White described him as a kind, well-mannered and respectful young man.

“Despite not wanting to be in the water, Ryan found himself there. He has now gone on to heaven, leaving behind a grieving mother and two siblings,” he said.

Senator Keno Wong also offered condolences and asked the community to pray for the family.

The family said anyone wishing to assist with burial expenses can contact Ms Alfred at 809-1474.