New investigation team to swing into action on cold case murders
By Elizabeth Roberts
A dedicated team of detectives will be working full-time to crack Bermuda's cold case murders from Monday onwards.
Assistant Police Commissioner Paul Wright said the four officers won't be pulled away to investigate new crimes meaning they can focus all their efforts on the task at hand.
The team is comprised of an inspector, a sergeant and two constables, who will undergo training over the next few weeks from experts flown in from the UK. The move is part of a recent restructuring within the Serious Crime Unit, which will also see a specialised anti-gang unit rolled out from Monday too.
According to Mr. Wright: "We've always run a systematic review of cold cases and always continued those inquiries. It's quite painstaking work and often if you need dedicated resources on it they can be pulled away for other inquiries. What this does is create a dedicated resource that can focus solely on this without the other demands that occur day to day."
Around 20 murder cases remain unsolved on the Bermuda Police files dating back several decades. Some, which resulted in court cases and acquittals, are not being actively investigated. These include the notorious slaying of Canadian tourist Rebecca Middleton in 1996 and the murder of British expat Jacqueline Meridith, who was bludgeoned to death almost 20 years ago.
However, five of the killings in particular are the focus of the new cold case team, after input from UK-based investigators over the past year. These are the stabbings of Gleen Wolffe in 1999 and Marcus Gibbings in 2006, and the shootings of Shaundae Jones in 2003, Jason Lightbourne in 2006 and Shaki Crockwell in 2007.
According to Mr. Wright, those are the murders investigators feel they have "the best chance of success" in cracking although they will look at the others too if fresh leads come up.
One of their key tools will be the recently-implemented national DNA database. Samples are now being routinely taken from suspects arrested over new crimes and compared to forensic evidence found at the scene of unsolved cases.
"We've done some work, particularly on (the case of) Gleen Wolffe this year in relation to potential DNA leads which didn't pan out, but work is still going on," explained Mr. Wright. "Our investigations in serious crime are relentless over protracted periods in complex and difficult crimes. We never stop."
Superintendent Antoine Daniels, who heads the Serious Crime Unit added: "We've been consistently looking at these things, reviewing, re-interviewing witnesses, looking at different things we can do. In most of these cases we have an idea of who committed the acts it's just a case of tying them to it with evidence."
He said the UK team, from the Group Four security company, was comprised of around 12 crime analysts and investigators who spent time on the Island from October to December of last year, and returned from February to April this year.
"They came bringing a fresh pair of eyes, looking at some of our investigations that we had done, giving us advice on ways to take it forward, giving us a strategy and utilising overseas agencies," he explained.
One thing they did was put the Bermuda Police Service in touch with a UK laboratory specialising in a technique called low-copy DNA which can extract evidence such as blood or semen from items that may be many years old.
According to Supt. Daniels: "It's a very expensive and long process. But we have one case, for example, where we have a rusty tool where ordinarily it would be very difficult to get DNA."
Families of some of the cold-case murder victims last night welcomed news of the specialist team.
Richard Gibbings, father of Marcus Gibbings, 32, who was stabbed to death at his apartment in Devonshire in October 2006, said: "I think it's a good move to have these people paying particular attention to these cases and I would hope they would make some headway as regards to solving the case."
Marsha Jones, mother of Shaundae Jones, who was gunned down at the age of 20 in April 2003 said: "It's great and I wish them well but it's been years of promises and I'm not saying it's their fault directly, but I've been through about five team leaders in six years on Shaundae's case. We get promises and when it doesn't pan out or whatever, the plan is then cancelled.
"So I'm definitely elated when I see these things are being done and things are moving but I just want the day to come when they call me and say 'Ms Jones, we've made an arrest' or 'we're about to make an arrest'. Give me some closure."
