A Canadian man has been arrested in connection with the drowning of a four-year-old boy on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

Police say they were told a man took the boy, identified as Terrel Joshua Elibox, kite-surfing on Sunday at the Bois Chadon beach near Coconut Bay Resort.

The boy, known as TJ, fell into the water and disappeared. A search-and-rescue mission was conducted, but his body wasn’t found on Coconut Bay Beach until early Tuesday morning.

Insp. Marcellinus Leonce, of the Royal St. Lucia Police Force, said the man who was arrested is a Canadian citizen who was on holiday at the time of the incident. The man, whose identity has not been released, is believed to be a medical student.

The man under arrest and the boy did not know each other, Leonce said.

According to a local TV news report, the boy was attending a church picnic at the beach with his family at the time of the incident.

The report said family members didn’t know he was missing until a man approached his grandmother and said the boy had fallen off his surfboard.

“TJ’s grandmother did not, under any circumstances, give … the visitor riding the surfboard permission to take TJ on the surfboard,” his aunt, Callista Roserie said in the TV report.

Police say the man has not been charged, but he remains in custody and is assisting with the investigation.

With files from The Canadian Press