Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Dear Mr. Peets,
Let me add to my brother's and many other voices in saying that our agenda is not to make our mother's death into something it was not. If there is a plausible accident scenario, we would like to hear it.
Unfortunately, based on our investigation, which at this point is more comprehensive than that of the local Nevis police and the FBI, the evidence points strongly to an assault. Consider:
1. Rita's house had been broken into on several occasions, the most recent (unsolved) taking place approximately 10 days prior to her fatal injury entry via kitchen window.
2. The small television, found on the floor beside Rita on August 24, has been identified as a possible cause of Rita's massive head injury in the accident scenario. That television normally sat on a nearby shelf AT WAIST HEIGHT. Dr. George, attending surgeon at Alexandra Hospital, described the cause of Rita's massive head injury as "a severe blow with a blunt object. Either the person was very strong or the object was very heavy." Dr. Gaskin, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Rita's body told my brothers and me, in the presence of Nevis Chief Inspector Hilroy Brandy, that he concurred with Dr. George's opinion, though he could not ascertain the cause of that blow. In order for the television to strike Rita's head and cause the kind of damage described it would have to HAVE DESCENDED ONTO HER HEAD FROM ABOVE / LEFT WITH GREAT FORCE in other words she would either have to have fallen and been lying on the floor already (and there is no indication of any other bruising or injury on her body) in a very contorted position under the shelf and pulled the television onto her (unreachable from the floor); or the television would have to have been thrown at her from overhead. Again, if there is an accident scenario that fits these actions, or some other plausible explanation, we'd like to hear it.
The claims that there is an extensive ongoing criminal investigation taking place are naïve at best. Without a fully sealed crime scene (we personally witnessed a police officer exit the house on a day when it was supposedly "frozen."), with no fingerprint analysis of any of the persons that entered the house to extricate Rita; no fingerprint comparison or analysis with the suspect that was in custody for 2 days; no suspect caught for the recent previous break in, how are we to believe that this matter is being taken seriously?
As to the scratching of heads over the fact that the front door was locked, this would be laughable if it were not such a tragedy. The house is aged and the windows are easy to enter with no tools we did it ourselves in less than 2 minutes and the intruder 10 days prior also had no problem.
Sir, if there is a sincere interest in uncovering the truth and there is nothing to hide, why is the investigation being handled so amateurishly? Lack of training, lack of resources, lack of motivation? we don't understand. There's no shame in the Nevis government asking for help with the investigation if it is needed, but to even give the impression, as has been done, that there is less than a 100% effort being made to resolve this matter, is doing a great disservice to our mother and all the other crime victims on Nevis who have told us that the government is not doing right by them. You have a problem on your hands much larger than the death of one old woman. We encourage you to take this opportunity to strengthen your approach and demonstrate your sincerity in responding to crime, because it is infecting your homeland at an alarming rate and the criminals are currently under the impression that they can get away with it.
I assure you we will not rest until we are convinced that a sincere and thorough investigation has taken place into the cause of Rita's death. And we will not hesitate to alert the entire world if we believe that anything less has taken place.
Sincerely yours,
Jonathan Zeichner