This sound familiar? Sounds just like Aruba except they didn't have a well connected Paul Van Der sloot that knew from the very beginning.."No Corpse No Case"
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Men Questioned in Tourist Death in India
Mar 9, 1:49 PM (ET)
PANAJI, India (AP) - Police questioned three men Sunday in an investigation into the death of a 15-year-old British girl whose body was found on a beach in southern India, officials said.
There were unconfirmed reports later Sunday from the Press Trust of India news agency that a man had been formally arrested. It was unclear whether he was one of those already questioned and police did not say what charges he was facing.
Scarlett Keeling was seen with a group of local men at a bar on the night she died, three of whom were held for questioning by the authorities earlier in the day, police official Bosco George said.
.Her partially clothed and bruised body was found Feb. 18 on Anjuna beach in Goa, a tiny state with a coastline crowded with tourists and resorts.
Police initially believed she accidentally drowned because she was drunk, but her family accused the police of a cover-up and pushed for a second autopsy and further investigation.The second autopsy also showed that she had drowned, officials said, but doctors identified more bruises on her body and recommended that police investigate the death as a murder. The family also believes that Keeling may have been sexually assaulted.
"It was our main objective to get the police or somebody to admit that she'd been murdered, as I knew in my heart that she had been," Fiona MacKeown, Keeling's mother, told British Broadcasting Corp. television.
"I'm convinced that they were covering it up."George, the police official, said he would conduct an internal inquiry into the investigation.Keeling was on vacation in India with her mother, her mother's boyfriend, and her five siblings. Keeling's family was traveling elsewhere in India when she was killed.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080309/D8VA27FG0.html--------------------------------------
Briton ‘witnessed sex attack on Scarlett Keeling’
Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent
A British man has told The Times that he saw an Indian barman apparently sexually assaulting Scarlett Keeling less than two hours before the 15-year-old British girl’s half-naked body was found on a beach in Goa.The witness, who asked not to be identified, said that the attack took place after Scarlett left Lui’s bar on Anjuna Beach high on a cocktail of LSD, Ecstasy and cocaine at 5am on February 18.Police confirmed she had been murdered only after a campaign by her mother, Fiona MacKeown, who refused to accept that her daughter had drowned. The case exposed the seedy side of Goa, one of India’s leading tourist destinations, and compounded fears about the safety of foreign women in India.
The witness said that he fled Goa because he believed that his life was in danger from the alleged assailant and the local police, who have been accused by Scarlett’s mother of covering up her rape and murder.
(snip)
His account of Scarlett’s final hours came as police in Goa announced that they had arrested Samson D’Souza, a barman at Lui’s, on suspicion of raping her.
Inspector Kishin Kumar, of the Goan police, said: “Although the sex may or may not have happened with consent, since the girl was a minor a case of rape has been recorded. More arrests and detentions are likely soon.” Police said that they had detained two other Indian men for questioning, including Luis Coutinho, the owner of Lui’s. They are searching for four others.
The detentions followed a second postmortem examination on Saturday which showed that Scarlett had been murdered and had 50 bruises and abrasions on her body. The original postmortem noted only five bruises and concluded that she had drowned. Fiona MacKeown, Scarlett’s mother, had refused to accept that and accused police of covering up her rape and murder. “It was our main objective to get the police . . . to admit that she’d been murdered, as I knew in my heart that she had been,” Mrs MacKeown said yesterday.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3517075.ece-------------------------------------------------------------
Three detained over Scarlett Keeling murder
By Pamela Timms in Goa and Robyn Powell
Last Updated: 6:20pm GMT 09/03/2008
Indian police have detained three men in connection with the murder of Scarlett Keeling, 15, who was found dead on an Indian beach last month.
Scarlett Keeling lived her with her mother and siblings in a smallholding in Devon
The Indian men are likely to be formally arrested, police official Bosco George said. The owner of a café on Anjuna beach where Keeling was last seen partying, was reportedly among those detained.
It is believed police are also searching for four more men in relation to the attack.
An officer who did not want to be named said: "We have pinned them down because they are always loitering around in the beach belt and their conduct was suspicious. They became friendly to her during her three-month stay."
A murder investigation was launched when a second post-mortem examination on the teenager, indicated she had been brutally assaulted. Police in Goa, where she had been on holiday with her family, had earlier said they thought she had drowned.
Her mother, Fiona MacKeown, who has spent recent weeks campaigning for the death to be re-investigated, told The Sunday Telegraph: "I'm just relieved that we've achieved this first objective.
"It's a strange feeling now, though, to come to terms with the fact that Scarlett was actually murdered. I know there's a huge procedure ahead of us to get the case solved.
"The hardest thing for me now is to try and put faith in the police officers who looked me in the eye and lied about my daughter's death.
"I'm now hoping to take Scarlett home and bury her on our land with a beautiful ceremony."
Scarlett, who with her mother and siblings in a smallholding in Devon, arrived in Goa back in November, embracing the island's party lifestyle. She was last seen alive at a bar called Lui's on Feb 18, where she was said to be in the company of several men.
Her corpse was found on the beach only yards away, her shorts and underwear having been removed and her bra-top pushed up around her neck.
The first post-mortem examination recorded only five bruises on her body. The second found 50, and injuries to her genital regions."They [the police] have caused us a huge traumatic experience," said Mrs MacKeown. "They have behaved like criminals."http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/09/windia209.xml---------------------------------------------
A 28-year-old man arrested by police in India in connection with the rape and murder of British teenager Scarlett Keeling.
Inspector Kishan Kumar, of Goa police, said local man Samson D'Souza was detained after witnesses came forward.
They allege they saw him raping the 15-year-old from Devon on the beach at the resort of Anjuna on February 18.
"This man was seen with the girl near to where her dead body was found. It was evidently clear this man was raping her," he said.
"We have sufficient evidence to show this man was having sex with the girl in the early hours of February 18.
"We have established that he was raping her."
The police official added that Indian officers were now working on a murder investigation.
"This part of the investigation is still going on," he said.
For almost three weeks, local police had insisted the teenager, who was found semi-naked on a beach, had drowned after drinking.
But the results of a second post-mortem confirmed her death should be investigated as murder.
"This (arrest) has been an indication that the huge pressure Scarlett's mother has brought to bear on the Indian police is apparently beginning to pay dividends," said
She added that a local guide whom Scarlett became friendly with - but who has strenuously denied any involvement in her death - had also been quizzed by detectives.
Scarlett's mother has told Sky News she had "mixed emotions" about the fact that the death is now being treated as murder.
Fiona MacKeown has had to battle to find out what happened, refusing to accept the official police line that there were no signs of a violent attack.
She took photographs of her daughter's body at the morgue which showed at least 50 marks or bruising - the initial examination claimed there were only five marks.
She also recorded extensive bruising to the genital area.
"I am hugely relieved as we have got past the first hurdle to prove it was murder," she said.
"I feel kind of empty and flat but relieved as well, it's a funny mix of feelings."
Fiona Mackeown: 'Mixed feelings'
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1308580,00.html------------------------------------------------
(CNN) -- The mother of a British girl found dead in Goa last month is facing police questions about negligence, her lawyer said Tuesday.
Quote
Scarlett had been on an extended vacation with her family, and was living with a male friend and his aunts while the rest of the family traveled to an adjoining Indian state.
Police arrested a bartender over the weekend in the case, which they are treating as a rape and murder.
Varma said that any questions about negligence by the mother were unfounded. He said MacKeown trusted the friend's family to take care of her daughter.
"She had left Scarlett in the care of two aunts," he said. "They had assured Fiona that they would look after her child. They were in touch with her four times a day."
The lawyer added: "I don't see the legal strength in such a line of questioning."
MacKeown believes the questions about negligence are a "diversion tactic" to turn attention away from what she considers a corrupt police investigation, the mother's spokeswoman, Dakini Runningbear, told CNN.
Quote
She also criticized police for initially saying her daughter drowned despite clues that pointed to homicide. She demanded a second autopsy, after which police changed the cause of death.
Varma said the police investigation had been "nothing but murky."
"The place where this crime has happened, it's a small village, and when a crime happens all the people know about it," Varma said.
"But it took three weeks for a police officer to change this crime from death due to drowning in the sea to rape and
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/11/india.tourist/?iref=mpstoryview-----------------------------------------
Minister: Teen's Goa murder covered upQuote
NEW DELHI, India -- Police covered up the murder of a British teenage girl in Goa last month to protect the tourist industry, a state minister and local media said Monday.Quote
"This is a clear case of murder and it has gone out of proportion because the police tried to cover it up," Francisco X. Pacheco, Goa's Tourism Minister told Reuters.com.Indian media suggested the cover-up was an attempt to protect Goa's tourism industry.
"They should have arrested this man a long time ago and this issue would have got diluted, but now because of the tainted image of some police officers in the case, things have gone out of hand," Pacheco said.
Quote
"We've had an awful lot of contact with people that have been in this situation before, and they've warned us to be careful (that) the police will try and find someone immediately to try and put a front on it that they're actually doing something," Fiona MacKeown told BBC radio on Monday.
Kumar described D'Souza as a "local Anjuna boy" who was a bartender at Liu's, a beachfront bar. He said police had confirmed D'Souza's role in Keeling's rape and were now trying to find evidence that he killed the teenager.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/10/india.tourist/index.html-------------------------------------------
Scarlett's mother accused the police of a cover-up
Dozens of journalists have descended on a corner of India to follow the investigation into the murder of British teenager Scarlett Keeling, as many questions about her death remain unanswered.
On a sunny morning, the media scrum outside the handsome, brown-tiled building that houses the Goa police's "special juvenile unit" in the capital, Panaji, was frenziedly speculating about why Fiona MacKeown had been summoned there.
On Friday night, two constables had knocked on Ms MacKeown's door and handed a summons to her to appear next morning at the unit's offices in connection with the rape and murder of her 15-year-old daughter.
Scarlett was drugged and left for dead on a beach in Goa last month, after being left by her mother in the care of a 25-year-old tour guide that she had befriended in the resort of Anjuna. Two men have been arrested.
Her mother and her six other children had travelled to the neighbouring state of Karnataka.
The summons sparked speculation that she would be questioned about allegations of failing to provide a safe environment for Scarlett under Goa's five-year-old Children's Act which claims to "promote and protect the best interests of children" in the state.
After 105 minutes inside the police unit, Ms MacKeown walked out with her lawyer to tell the scrum that she had just given a statement - recorded on a video camera - about what she knew about the case.
"There was no suggestion that they are investigating me. I told them what had happened, and the police are treating me as a witness," she said.
"They [the police] were not aggressive with me... but that doesn't rule out the fact that I feel intimidated and harassed by this whole process," she said.
Minutes later, Bosco George, the police superintendent investigating the case, came out and the media scrum moved to him.
"We asked whether she can help us, give us some leads [to the investigation]," a calm Supt George said.
Distressed
In response to the BBC's question whether Ms MacKeown was co-operating with police, Supt George smiled and mopped the sweat on his brow.
"The fact that she has arrived here is co-operation, isn't it," he said wryly.
When Ms MacKeown had arrived at the police unit in the morning, she looked shaken and distressed.
"I don't know what they will ask me. They are just harassing me," she said, adding that she had been already questioned once early during the investigation.
"The police have lied to me. They have told me Scarlett's body was found floating in the sea, that she was wearing swimwear, that her body had no bruise or struggle marks.
"They have cajoled and convinced me that it is a simple case of drowning and I must take her body back home quickly."
She distributed photocopies of seven pages of various letters and statements which she said supported her allegations.
One of the documents was a Goa police "first information report" dated 9 March on Scarlett's death, that mistakenly said Ms MacKeown's father's name was "Mr Sukumar Desarkar", a very Indian name. Supt George conceded that was an error.
A statement by Ms MacKeown alleged she had information that the "drugs mafia" in Goa had a "strong nexus" with a senior Goa minister and a police official.
But Supt George denied allegations there was a police conspiracy to hush up the investigations.
"Wild allegations...what is this police conspiracy?" he said. "Let the courts give its verdict on the quality of investigation. Let the courts decide whether it was shoddy or not."
Speculation
The police have admitted that there have been "serious lapses" in investigation and suspended a policeman who was initially investigating the case. They have denied charges of a cover-up.
At the end of it all, the thinning scrum covering Goa's biggest story this year speculated for the last time.
Why did the police call Ms MacKeown to a juvenile unit of the department for a statement? Had they initially planned on questioning her on "neglecting" her child, and later changed their mind? If so, why?
There are still many unanswered questions in the Scarlett Keeling case.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7298093.stm-------------------------------
NCW to prepare report on Scarlettes deathPTI
New Delhi, March 26
The National Commission for Women today said it will independently prepare a report on the death of British teenager, Scarlette Eden Keeling in Goa last month and voiced concern over the state of her mother who is fighting her battle all alone.
A two-member team is set to leave for Goa, NCW member, Ms Nirmala Venkatesh, who will be heading it, said here.
We will independently prepare a report and find out if there is anything that is missing. Police are doing their job but our report would further help the probe, she said.
Ms Venkatesh said, “We are concerned about the state of her mother Fiona MacKeown. She is fighting her battle alone. She needs support in an unknown place.
Fiona also fears a threat to her life. We will find out and try to put the pieces together in our capacity. We want the guilty should be punished, she said.
A number of female tourists keep visiting India and we want them to feel safe and have complete faith in the Indian system. Our support would ensure them that we all are with them. They are not fighting alone, she said.
Scarlette was allegedly drugged, raped and left to die on the popular Anjuna beach last month. Ms MacKeown had sought a CBI inquiry into her death and alleged cover-up by the police.Under pressure on the credibility of police probe, the Goa Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat had said yesterday that the state government was willing to hand over the case to the CBI.
http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=032738
