A housing construction site became a death trap for this little boy who drowned after falling into a three-metre deep pool of rain water.
Six-year-old Bryoeton “Boetie” Trompetter was last seen by his mother, Nicolene Trompetter, 34, on Friday morning.
The Valhalla Park boy went playing with friends at a nearby skate park around 11am but it wasn’t until hours later when his family went on a frantic search for him.
After nearly 24 hours, emergency divers found Bryoeton’s body in a large hole filled with rain water at the site along Valhalla Drive on Saturday.
His rain boots were found near the site.
Mom of four Nicolene says she became worried when he did not come home for lunch on Friday afternoon.
“I thought he was playing with his friends,” she tells the Daily Voice.
Dad Brian came home from work at about 7pm, and the search intensified.
A heartbroken Brian, 37, says: “I usually kiss them when I go to work but I was running late on Friday morning so I didn’t even go into their room. No one knew where he was and the last place anyone saw him was at the skate park. We kept looking there but because it was dark we had to stop,” he says.
Brian went to the police station at 9pm to file a missing person’s report.
He says: “We couldn’t sleep that night because we were worried about him. The next morning the water had to be drained out of the hole but the divers couldn’t wait any longer so they went in.
“They found him with his hands clenched and in a foetal position, (like) he was cold,” says the grieving dad.
Brian suspects his son went looking for tadpoles when he fell into the dammetjie.
Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut says no foul play is suspected and an inquest docket was opened.
“We have reason to believe that he drowned in a hole filled with water,” he says.