An 11-year-old Vermont boy was found dead, hanging by the neck under his great aunt’s house on Tuesday afternoon, sometime after his cousin saw him tie a rope under the house.
Residents of Francois, the village where the incident occurred, identified the deceased as Gifton Myle.
His family appeared to be too distraught to speak to the media when iWitness News visited the area sometime after police removed the body from the scene.
Grifton lived a few hundred feet from where his body was found.
The body was found on the ground level of an incomplete house, where Gifton’s great aunt, Nicolelyn Myle and her son live on the first floor.
Speaking to iWitness News in the presence of his mother, 9-year-old Kleran Myle said he saw Gifton tying up the rope under the house.
He said Gifton did not respond when he asked him what he was doing with the rope.
“So, I came up here and went to watch the TV,” he said, adding that he met Gifton dead when he went back downstairs.
Kleran, a Grade 4 student at Buccament Government School, located in Dubois, said he did not see Gifton tie the rope around his neck.
He said he was not sure for how long he was watching TV before he went back outside and found his cousin dead.
However, Kleran told iWitness News that when he saw Gifton, he realised that something was wrong.
“When I took the rope off his neck, the thing was printed on his neck. Like the rope sucked in tight. And I thought and said, ‘Papa dead’,” Kleran told iWitness News.
Meanwhile, Nicolelyn said that the incident was “really a tragedy.
“It’s really frightening all in one. Because to see that he experienced something like that, all that is running through my mind is that it would have an effect on him,” she told iWitness News.
“Because all of them were close, very close; always together. And for him to experience something like that is a real sad story.”
Nicolelyn said she would monitor her son’s reaction and would take him for counselling, accordingly.
She said that Gifton, Kleran and other children were together in the area that day.
Nicolelyn told iWitness News Gifton had asked her that morning if Kleran could go with him to pick plums.
“I told him no because where he was going to pick the plum, the plum tree hung over a bank.”
Gifton was expected to begin his secondary education in September, having written the primary school exit examination in May.
Police are investigating the death of the child.
Sad! My condolences.
My condolences to this child’s family, friends, neighbours and other loved ones.
My deepest condolences to the family 😭, it’s so sad 😭😭😭 RIP papa, nomore you when I get back to St Vincent,i can’t eat or sleep,i can’t believe your gone 😭,
There is a tiktok challenge going around where young boys are hanging themselves and putting it online.
I have read about many cases in the United States where young boys are killing themselves that way. we need to let the youth in St Vincent now and educate them.