Says the face and nature of crime changing
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – WITH the Federation still in shock following Thursday’s (Jun. 15) discovery of the body of 17-year-old Leanna Napoleon, Opposition Leader the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas has condemned the act.
The fifth form student of Basseterre High School was reported missing after she had written her CSEC EDPM exam at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College on Monday, May 8, 2017.
She was reportedly last seen on Fort Street, Basseterre in the afternoon of the day in question.
Since then, members of the Police Force, Defence Force, family members, friends and public-spirited citizens had conducted extensive searches in the Buckley’s, Keys and other areas for the missing 17-year-old without success.
Speaking with SKNVibes shortly after leaving Parliament on Thursday, the former Prime Minister said that the country is in “great relief” but sadden that Napoleon was not recovered alive.
“Although the country is in great relief that the body of Leanna Napoleon has been found, the entire country I believe is in mourning mainly because the very unfortunate circumstance that engulfed her disappearance, and now as we have learnt of her death.”
A noticeably emotional Dr. Douglas said that a child leaving her parent’s home to go to school should return and that “it should not take six weeks for us to know that she is dead”.
“Several appeals were made and I hope that at the end some of these appeals would have touched the hearts of those who would be responsible; and also, of course, would lend comfort and support to the police for at least finding the body of yet another homicide; the 15th it would appear so far for this year.
“If this is to bring us together as a people, then we must realize the serious tragedy that our country is going through and the crisis that has engulfed us, and, of course, it must be of some good.”
Like many others not knowing the facts in relation to Napoleon’s abduction and subsequent death, Dr. Douglas stated that based on information he received and the condition in which her body was found, “tells me now that there is very little regard as to who our victims are”.
“This is not someone who was going to a dance or coming from a dance at night,” he said. “This is a child who went to school and did her exams and just did not return home. She is a female, 17 years old, not known to be involved in a gang or anything of that kind.”
He noted that in recent times there is a trend of women becoming victims of crime; be it crimes of passion or other forms of violence.
“There is a real concern as we were saying in the Parliament just today, the face of crime, the face of homicides in this country is changing very rapidly and it is of grave concern to us all.”
The police are continuing their investigations into the discovery of her body in a shallow grave in the Olivees Mountain area, and information reaching this publication indicates her elder brother is once again in custody.
