No burial yet for triple murder victims

A month after the news of a triple murder rocked Barbados, the victims’ bodies are still to be buried and at least one family member wants to know why it took so long for autopsies to be performed.

Hollist Webb is demanding answers from the Coroner’s office about why the body of his brother and two other men murdered on Independence Day remained in the morgue for four weeks without autopsies.

The 51-year-old is accusing authorities of totally ignoring the feelings of his family and ruining their holiday season by leaving them waiting in vain to plan a funeral for their slain relative, Cecil Webb.

On Saturday, Webb’s body was released to the family. But it was too late for many of his relatives who had come home to grieve and bury him.

“My brother got murdered. If in two weeks’ time we were able to bury him, at least we would know he isn’t just lying in a freezer somewhere. He would have been buried and gone and we could have started to rebuild instead of having to now go through the process of burying him,” said the upset brother.

“No one has ever issued an apology explaining the reason why it happened. The thing about it is that it happened on a day like November 30th, which we believed, would be memorable in people’s minds.”

He added: “I had family that came in and spent two weeks and had to get back to work and they will have to miss the funeral. For Christmas we did nothing. Even my family members overseas did not hang up lights or give gifts or celebrated Christmas as they used to before,” Hollist said dejectedly.

On November 30th, Cecil Webb, 49, of Lower Walkers; Terry Small, a man in his late forties, of Walkers; and Lennox Browne, 48, of Walkers, all in St Andrew were killed in a bloody dispute reportedly over land.

When Hollist spoke to Barbados
TODAY on Monday, he indicated the bodies of the two other men were also released on Saturday.

“I am not just speaking on the behalf of my family but on behalf of all the families. I know in Barbados many people let things happen and they don’t seem to have the guts or the balls to speak out but that is why things are always like this. We let people do things and get away with it. That is why I speak on behalf of all of the families because I know they also have to be frustrated,” he said.

Efforts to reach the Coroner’s office as well as Attorney General Dale Marshall for an explanation were unsuccessful.

But according to Hollist, the process may have taken even longer had he not contacted someone who assisted in having the procedure “fast-tracked”. He said he was informed that a pathologist had to come from “one of the islands” to conduct the autopsies.

“Usually autopsies don’t happen on Saturdays but we had to let them know that the family really needed to get some closure and it is taking too long for a body to be there,” he complained, while adding that the sting of his brother’s death still lingered.

“With my family, it is hard, because I buried my dad on the 6th of November and then this tragic incident was really too close because I had not even gotten over my father.

“You don’t sit down and study these things but there are constantly on your mind. You’re out there crying, you’re driving and you have to pull over and you’re in the grocery store and tears come. It’s really hard,” he said.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb