Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Orville London said Tobago homicide officers currently have some encouraging and promising leads with respect to the killing of British lawyer Richard Wheeler and his Trinidadian-born wife, Grace.
Speaking at the post-Executive Council news conference yesterday London said following a conversation with Assistant Commissioner of Police for Tobago Garfield Moore he was confident that the murders would be solved. He said: “All of us in Tobago must abhor senseless and vicious acts like that and we have a responsibility to ensure that we do all in our power to guarantee this is not something that is going to be repeated in Tobago.
“ACP Vincel Edwards, who is a Tobago-born officer who is now in charge of homicide, he and a team have come from Trinidad, working in collaboration with the Tobago police officers to ensure that they bring a speedy conclusion to the investigations.
“The latest reports are that they have some promising leads, some encouraging leads and I am hopeful that they would be able to bring the perpetrator to justice in the shortest possible time.”
London said Tobago’s situation was changing and urged Tobagonians to be more vigilant. He also said citizens had the responsibility to assist the police in solving serious crimes, despite out of the five instances where foreigners were attacked, only one has been solved by police. He said, there should be no blame game. He added: “It is always easier to throw the blame and say that they are not doing enough.
“My question is why are the murders not solved and I always make the point that the more senseless and motiveless a murder is, or an act is, the more difficult it is to solve because not to have a motive to go on, you don’t have anything on which to base the judgment.
“That is why I am saying in many of those cases is the information which the police get from persons who are not police officers, that assists in bringing the perpetrators to justice
“There are times when they can do better, there are times when they can perform better but I am not going to sit here without knowing what the facts are, and just simply bashing the police” he said.
London said the THA was prepared to deal with the backlash that might come from a negative tourist advisory. However, he said, each country has challenges with crime but how a territory dealt with it, would determine the outcome. He said the THA and the police was on top of the situation
He added: “We have to let the world know that we are on top of the situation. We will not be able to prevent every incident but that it is not an environment in which incidents like these are encouraged, facilitated or likely to happen on a regular basis.
“I think that is the reality in which we have to face but I am accepting the fact that when something like this happens, you have got to be realistic, there is going to be some fallout.
“How you treat with it and the signals you send and the level of intensity and sensitivity with which you treat with it, those are the kinds of things that will determine whether your markets would see things as manageable,” London added.
An autopsy is scheduled to be performed on the Wheelers today.
Other murders
• In 2008, Anna Sundsval, 62, and her companion Oke Olsoon chopped to death in Bon Accord. Nationality: Swede. Status: Unsolved.
• In 2009, Murium Greene, 59 and Peter Green, 65, chopped and left for dead in Bacolet. Nationality: - British. Status: Unsolved.
• In 2009, Peter Taut, 56; nationality: German. Status: Solved.
• In 2014, Hubertus Keil, 74, and Birgid Keil, 71 chopped to death on Bacolet Bay. Nationality: German. Status: Unsolved