Trelawny Relatives Hold Out Hope for Missing Falmouth Fisherman Dennis Clarke

The loved ones of Dennis Clarke, a 58-year-old fisherman from Green Park in Trelawny, are holding firm to the belief that he will be found alive after he vanished while heading out to sea last Sunday.

Speaking with THE WEEKEND STAR, Clarke's niece Kelesha Stubbs described the heavy mood that has settled over the household since his disappearance. "We would feel much better if he came back home because everybody is sad since [he disappeared]. Everyone just have this sad look because we want to see him," she said.

According to relatives, Clarke set out from his home around 6 a.m. on Sunday, planning to meet his brother at the Falmouth Fishing Village for a day at sea. The alarm was raised after the two men never connected and Clarke did not return that night.

"From Sunday he leave say him gone a sea and all now I can't see him, looking Monday I can't see him so I said 'You know what? I am going in town to find out what's going on', and when I went there, I saw no signs," Stubbs recounted. She said she made the roughly ten-minute trip from Green Park to the fishing village in Falmouth in search of answers.

"I asked around [at the fishing village] and they said no they don't see him. So I just don't understand. We went out there again and still don't see nothing so everyone is asking where is he," she added.

A significant development came on Wednesday when the family stumbled upon his belongings near the shoreline, close to Falmouth All-Age School where Clarke routinely stashed his items.

"We saw the bag with his clothes and his slippers. It's his one strap bag, and then that brown shopping bag with his clothes and so. That's up by the school way where he always put his things," Stubbs said.

For the family, the find has been read as an encouraging sign. "This mean that he did left out to go to sea then because the clothes that he wear is in the bag. But the ones he would dive in are missing," she reasoned.

Still, Stubbs expressed disappointment that searches by divers and members of the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard have so far turned up nothing.

Though Clarke has no children of his own, his niece said he was deeply woven into the family. "Everyone thinks I am his child, that's the relationship we have," she said, her voice trailing off.

Family friend Ronnalie Green, who joined the relatives at the home, noted that no one had actually witnessed Clarke entering the water. "He used to go fishing by himself but him stop that ... him don't usually pass the reef," she said.

Green said a tip came in on Wednesday suggesting Clarke had been spotted at the cays. "The other fishermen and his brother went to look. They don't see him or any boat, but they said that's a location he can swim to," she said.