It was bad enough when Lana Flood thought her brother had died after his reading candle accidentally set fire to his makeshift home.

But yesterday's news that Maxwell Brangman had already been murdered before his body was set alight has left Mrs. Flood and the rest of the victim's family stunned with shock and confusion.

Shortly after Police publicly announced they were treating the St. David's double deaths as murder, Mrs. Flood told The Royal Gazette: "I can't believe all this. It's too hard to believe that they would do this.

"I was okay with the candle. I didn't like it, but I was okay with it. But when you consider that these people, whoever they are, stabbed these guys to death and threw one overboard to hide what happened.... And then what did they do? Put a book in my brother's lap or chest to make it look like he had been reading, and then set him on fire?

"In my mind, it's just like: what happened? I would have loved to have been there on Saturday night, I really would."

Police believe the culprits may have been involved in disturbances at drinking venues in St. George's on the evening of the murders.

However, Mr. Brangman is said to have rarely left St. David's — especially at night.

Mrs. Flood said she did not know what he was doing that night, explaining: "I don't know anything about their movements. As long as he (Maxwell) was all right, that's all I would need to know. I would see him walking about and I knew he was okay. I would see him up on the wall, reading a paper or a book.

"If I didn't see him I would call my brother and if he had seen him it would be okay."

And on the suggestion that the pair had seen something they were not supposed to see, she said: "I can't fathom that. Anything is possible, but I really can't fathom that. What the hell could they have seen?"

Pointing to a recent increase in violence in the usually quiet St. David's, she continued: "The natives are getting restless. We have never had anything like this in St. David's. This is really bad for us as a community. There were days we never had the lock on our back doors in St. David's. Never ever. Not no more — you can't do it.

"We are not going to accept this behaviour down here. We don't want that element. Put them on an Island by themselves or something. Don't bring them down here.

"Right now it's at a point where the pot is boiling. They are angry."

But she said the family had received great support from the community.

"We are having our hard time — you can't believe it," she said. "With the way things are coming in — and people are coming in and saying different things — a richer man could not have received a better reward from people. Those of us who got out there and work every day could not have had a better reward.

"It's really sad. I don't know what to say."