ARE THE SEYCHELLES POLICE HIDING THE DNA TEST RESULTS?

By A.Pierre

Nothing has been heard from the Seychelles Police on the Bel Ombre skull case since the nation newspaper  on the 1^st of June reported assistant commissioner, Reginald Elizabeth,  saying he does not believe this will prevent the experts from identifying the victim in terms of “misleading” reports by Today in Seychelles Newspaper; that had claimed the week before that forensic experts in Mauritius had told them that because essential parts of the skull are missing it will be difficult to complete the DNA test.

Bel Ombre Skull

It is now well over two months since Detective Yves Leon took the human skull and DNA samples from three families to Mauritius for forensic analysis. The skull and DNA samples left Seychelles on 19th May 2015 and on 19 July 2015; it was exactly two months and not a word from the office of the Commissioner of Police on the matter. Reginald Elizabeth had also confirmed the skull to be an adult male. He also confirmed that the police have in their possession five empty bullet casings found on the scene but until confirmation from a ballistic expert, the police are in no position to establish neither their origin nor when they were fired. Mr Elizabeth further confirmed in an article in the nation newspaper on the 23^rd of May that the results of the DNA tests are expected in one or two months while results of the forensic pathology analysis on the skull are expected to take a week or more. We are now in August and still no news. Mr Elizabeth had stressed that the police are determined to bring as much transparency in the case and have set up a small taskforce committee with senior CID officers to determine if there has been any foul play, natural death or possible suicide which may have caused the death of the individual. The public are baffled!

Have the police received the test results and are hiding the information from the public? If not would it be asking too much for a statement from the office of the Commissioner of Police? The public are not comfortable with the silence over this very sensitive issue. The public are therefore appealing to the office of Mr Ernest Quatre for information on the matter immediately.

The skeleton with skull and bullet casings was discovered at Bel Ombre on a building site of H Resort in the second week of May. It took the police one whole week to get to the construction site, which is five minutes drive from the Central Police Station where the Commissioner is based. During that time, the evidence had been interfered with by Mauritian company Green Scapes Ltd; the landscaping company that was working there. The directors of the company have never been called in for questioning by the police for interfering with a possible crime scene. They sacked the lady, who by sheer coincidence, managed to save the skull otherwise there would have been nothing to go on; to try and identify the victim. This situation in itself is deserving of an inquiry to establish who tried to destroy the evidence. According to eye witnesses an excavator was used to dig up and remove all traces of the skeleton on the same night that the discovery was made. Unbeknownst to them Ms Patricia Duval had removed the skull, placed it in a plastic bag and had kept it in a store overnight. The next morning she reburied the skull at a different spot from where it was originally found because the area had been disturbed the night before. Patricia Duval was sacked by Green Scapes Ltd. She also revealed on the show Seselwa Annou Koze on 20^th of May that a part of an arm was found. Did the Mauritian company destroy that evidence?

Green Scapes Ltd

The attention is now all on the Commissioner of Police, Ernest Quartre,  as the public wait with bated breath at the overdue results of the DNA test.