PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Funeral services will be held Saturday for 19-year-old Daquan Rountree who went missing from his Portsmouth home in early December. Authorities found his body Jan. 8 at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
"It's like a big void. We miss him," said Gabriel Rountree, Daquan's father. "And I wish he was here. I really wish he was here."
Rountree's family previously reported Daquan didn't have any clothes when he left home, and they were concerned he was having a mental health episode.
"That was just a one-night situation," Gabriel said. "Prior to that, never, normal, young, 19-year-old man."
A month later, authorities found Daquan's body, without clothes, in the water near the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, where he worked as a pipefitter.
"That was torture that I can't even explain," Gabriel said. "That 30 days. I wish that on nobody."
Police told Daquan's family his son's body had no signs of trauma or signs of laceration, and there was nothing to indicate foul play.
"I believe wherever he went into the water, he just floated and ended up down in the shipyard," Gabriel told News 3's Jay Greene. "Unfortunately, I'm in the club of someone who's lost a child."
He said he hasn't even begun to process his emotions.
"I really don't know how I make it through," he said.
Gabriel said Daquan was an athlete, was incredibly smart, loved to read, and he had an upbeat, compassionate and positive personality.
"He loved to read, wasn't into the streets or anything like that," Gabriel said. "He would read so many books, dictionaries, like he was just knowledgeable."
As Gabriel prepares to lay his son to rest Saturday, he has a message for parents, not matter the age of their children.
"Ask difficult questions," he said. "Find out what's going. Ask 'how you doing? how was today? Is anything bothering you?'"
Services will begin at 11 a.m. on Jan. 20 at Third Baptist Street, 461 Godwin Street, Portsmouth. Interment to follow at Greenlawn Memorial Gardens on Airline Boulevard in Chesapeake.
