Loss a ‘black hole’ for mum
THE devastated mother of two little boys who drowned in a North Queensland river has described their deaths as a “black hole” that ripped out her insides.
Five-year-old Barak Austral and his little brother Jhulio Sariago, 3, were found dead in Townsville’s Ross River yesterday morning following a community-wide search that went throughout the night.
They were the little boys that did everything together, and even death could not separate them.
Chasing the ice-cream truck with their shoes on the wrong feet, shirts on backwards and inside out, the little boys raced through life with each other.
Their mother, Leanne Eatts, raised the alarm after her sons disappeared from their backyard on Monday afternoon. Relatives described how she screamed for them all night while police, family and locals scoured the riverbank.
“Barak and Jhulio, they were inseparable. They made it permanent,” the grieving mother said. “They were nine days apart, Barak born on 17 May, 2013, and Jhulio born 8 May, 2015, and they died on the same day – Jhulio was born the day after my birthday.
“Jhulio was so smart – he knew everything. He was a good kid, so loveable, lovely little face and beautiful nature … I’m going to miss them.”
The boys are believed to have walked from the yard down to the river, which was only 200m-300m away.
Barak, found in his school uniform, started at Cranbrook State School this year, his familiar school routine now leaving a gaping hole in his mum’s day.
“I feel like I’m in a horror movie and I can’t get out of it yet,” Ms Eatts said. “I can’t even explain it. I’ve had a rough four years but this feeling – I’ve never felt this type of feeling before, it’s like a black hole, like something’s missing, like someone ripped a hole out of me.
“I just don’t know what to do with myself, my whole life revolved around them … They have a routine – breakfast, get ready for school, get their bags and hats. In my mornings now I don’t know what to do.”
Ms Eatts said she was determined to remain strong for the rest of her family. The boys are two of five children – four boys and one girl.
“At 3 o’clock (yesterday) morning I had this sinking feeling they weren’t coming home, they weren’t coming through the gate,” she said.
“I told the police I just was getting disheartened and I was losing hope – not in the police but in their return … and they were found around that time.
“I just broke down, I was sitting there by myself … I wanted them to come home to mummy. But they didn’t come home.”