St. Martin News Network

Philipsburg: --- Constant rumors around the island are linking a former police officer to one of the recent murders. SMN News has learnt that the officer was fired from the force over a year ago after he allegedly was involved in a kidnapping case. This media house understands that the officer was subsequently fired.
SMN News on more than one occasion contacted Prosecutor Rienk Mud for a comment. Mud said on Wednesday that he would not confirm neither denies if the rumors have any bearing on any of his five murder investigations. SMN News also contacted Chief of Police Franklyn Richards who said he was not aware of the case. On Friday when contacted again on the information we are receiving, Mud said that he had no comment to make about the rumors. On Friday, we provided the name of the former police officer to Mud but he maintained that he had no comment to make.
Over the past months, reporters on St. Maarten are being pushed aside when questions are posed about the ongoing murder investigations. The police and prosecutor's office on more than one occasion have refuted media reports about arrests they have made regarding these murder investigations. Photographs of several suspects were published online when the suspects were taken to court yet there is no information forthcoming from the police and prosecutor's office.
While we fully agree that these investigating officers as well as the prosecutor's office cannot try their cases in the media neither can they give us their case files we believe that there must be some level of transparency with the community. The community of St. Maarten has a right to know and if they are included, enough they are the ones who are going to assist both the police and prosecutor's office with their investigations, which might lead them to the culprits involved in these senseless killings.
Early last year the prosecutor's office published some photographs as well as released names of suspected criminals to the media and within days the police managed to arrest their wanted men and women and safely put them away. Due to the fact that the police and prosecutor's office have seen that the general public are willing to assist them in fighting crime, we strongly believe that its time they embrace the community and allow them to assist in solving these murder cases. The records can show that St. Maarten, "a dot on the map" have far too many unsolved murders that have gone cold. For the sake of transparency, we are going to list the names of a few of those victims whose families are still waiting for closure. They are Brenda Azille, Jack Gumbs, Josnersabre, and Derrick Smith.
SMN News insisted on Mud to react to our story and he said he do not believe that by giving detailed information about ongoing investigations to the media the people on St. Maarten would step forward and supply the police or prosecutor's office with information that could help them solve the pending murder cases. The public prosecutor said if people really have information that is important, they need to come forward or call the tip line 9300. Mud made clear that his office does not deal with rumors and stories that are going around. He felt that people are generally scared and are not willing to "snitch" or help the police department.

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