Dominic Bernard: Mother of murdered teen's bid to save life of disabled boy she met in Guyana

Touched: Linda was moved after meeting Ephraim in Guyana
Linda Bernard
Jamie Micklethwaite14 October 2016

The mother of a teenager who was allegedly murdered in South America has launched a fundraiser to save the life of a disabled child she met during a trip for a court hearing.

Linda Bernard, 52, from Epsom, travelled to Guyana in July to attend a court hearing over the murder of her 18-year-old son Dominic, who disappeared while on holiday in the country last October, when she met seven-year-old Ephraim Collins.

The youngster suffers from hydrochephalus - a condition which causes a large build up of fluid in the brain and makes the head swell.

The circumference of Ephraim’s head is currently 88cm, believed to be the largest human head in the world.

Tragic: Dominic Bernard was allegedly murdered while on holiday in Guyana
Facebook

Mrs Bernard is aiming to raise around £70,000 to fund a life-saving operation which would see fluid drained from Ephraim's brain.

The bereaved mother hopes to bring-in cash by cutting off a ponytail she has had for 30 years on October 22, in Cheam.

Her hair will be made into a wig for a child with cancer.

Her friend, Zena Alli, said: “Linda believes that by helping to raise money for Ephraim to have a life-saving operation, some good may come from her family's loss.”

It is believed that Dominic was murdered shortly after he arrived in Guyana in October last year. His body was found badly decomposed in a shallow grave in January.

His godbrother, Aaron Hing, 22, and 23-year-old Staymon George have been charged with the murder, and a man and two women also appeared before a judge accused of helping bury Dominic’s body and his camera equipment.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in