Tragic end for lost brothers
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 tragically discovered 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 for the missing children.
“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 200-300m 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 mother’s day.