Pathologist refused to come to St. Maarten to conduct autopsy, due to non payment.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The father of murder victim Lizcania Maduro (Beba Brumant), Attorney at Law Edwin Maduro is furious with the police and Public Prosecutor's Office regarding how his daughter's murder investigation is being handled.
Maduro told SMN News in an exclusive interview that his daughter was killed sometime between September 1st and September 2nd, 2014 and to date the Prosecutor's Office cannot conduct an autopsy and turn over the body to the family. Maduro said that the Prosecutor's Office did not pay the coroner from Curacao and that pathologist has now refused to come to St. Maarten to conduct autopsies. Further he said that St. Maarten began dealing with a coroner (pathologist) from Aruba and that pathologist also refused to come to St. Maarten to conduct the autopsy on his daughter's body because he too is not being paid. The bereaved father said that if by Monday September 15th, 2014 an autopsy is not conducted on his daughter's body he will have to file an injunction to have a judge force the Prosecutor's Office to do their jobs and find a pathologist to conduct the autopsy on his daughter's body. "My daughter's body is totally rigged with stab wounds and I heard she was shot twice but the police and prosecution did not confirm any of this to the family. I do know of the multiple stab wounds but I am not sure of the gunshot wounds," Maduro said.
Father Alleged that Police Tamper with Evidence.
Maduro also accused the police of causing his daughter's death, he said it's been three years that his daughter was being threatened by someone known to everyone as "Flamingo." Maduro said the young man was dating his daughter and while he was in prison in Curacao he was sending all sorts of threatening messages by SMS to his daughter. "All of this my daughter took to the police but they never took a written report. They told her that whenever that person is released from prison and is scheduled to return to St. Maarten they would inform her, but police never did that. Once when I heard that the young man was back on St. Maarten I sent my daughter to Santo Domingo for her own safety."
Maduro is extremely upset with how police handled the murder investigation he said that when he and his son went to the scene where his daughter's car with her body was found in the trunk they saw two cranes removing the stolen vehicles that were found where his daughter's body was found. "The police focused on the stolen cars instead of focusing on the murder investigation. By taking the cranes up there they removed the killer's foot prints. The killer or killers could not have made his escape through the bushes so the police would have found traces of how his late daughter car got to the location and exactly how the killer or killers left the location. Maduro said he is more than willing to assist police in finding the person of interest in his daughter's murder investigation because his family wants justice. "We cannot say for sure he is the one that killed my daughter but he is indeed a person of interest and he cannot be found. If this person was not involved in my daughter's murder why is he hiding?" Maduro asked.
He said he went to the police last Thursday and requested the photographs of his daughter's car because he wanted to publish those photographs in the newspaper and call on the community including businesses that have camera surveillance to check their tapes to see if that particular car passed their area from 5pm September 1st, 2014 but the police told him that he should allow them to do their jobs and they will publish the photos. He said up to now those photos were not published so he is of the opinion that the police and prosecution are not interested in solving the case.
SMN News called head of the detective department Denise Jacob and even sent an SMS message to Jacob to get a response on the family concerns but Jacob never answered her phone neither did she respond to the SMS.
SMN News then contacted Chief Commissioner of Police Peter de Witte who said he got updates on the murder investigation but he does not have the details. De Witte said the only person that can address the concerns of the victim's family is the head of the detective department who we could not reach.
Only Two Prosecutors on St. Maarten while Six Murder Investigations Ongoing.
While KPSM has a number of cases they are working on, three of the five prosecutors working on St. Maarten are travelling. Currently there are only two prosecutors on St. Maarten. Chief Prosecutor Rick Noordhoek is currently in the Netherlands while two of the others are on vacation. SMN News called Noordhoek to get an official comment on the payments due to the coroners but when he realized it was SMN News calling him he kept hanging up his telephone.
Detectives at KPSM told SMN News that they are unable to do their jobs, because without adequate prosecutors on the island to grant them warrants they just cannot do anything. One detective said the people of St. Maarten must know that the Prosecutor's Office is accusing everyone including politicians of travelling too often but they are also travelling non-stop and holding up several investigations.
Acting Press Prosecutor Karola Van Nie returned a call to SMN News shortly after this article was published on Sunday Ms. Van Nie said the last thing she heard is that a coroner is scheduled to arrive on the island sometime soon but she could not say exactly when, Ms. Van Nie said that Public Prosecutor's Office is not responsible for paying bills to the coroners but that has to be taken care of by the Ministry of Justice. As per the information regarding the complaints the now dead woman tried to file with the police, Ms. Van Nie said that the police and prosecution got the same information as SMN News and they are trying to find out exactly when the victim went to the police for help. When asked if she knew of the SMS messages sent to the victim that her father said they have copies of Ms. Van Nie said that she is unable to share that information with the media because the investigation for them is very delicate. She further explained that the death of the young woman is very shocking and they are working hard on solving the case. When asked about the tampering of evidence as alleged by the victim's father Ms. Van Nie said that she knew that the detectives and forensic from KPSM were at the location for a very long time and she believed they did all they could have done to gather as much evidence as possible.
SMN News tried to reach the Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson on Sunday for a comment on these allegations by the Maduro family but the Minister could not be reached by telephone. Lizcania Maduro (24) was a bartender at the Great Bay Sonesta Resort, she last worked on September 1st and her body was found on the morning of September 2nd, 2014.
