Missing man not ‘wanted’

The Oscar Suarez who went missing with his girlfriend, Magdalena Devil during a west coast jet ski ride is no U.S fugitive, lawmen have confirmed.

Oscar Suarez and Magdalena Devil

Police Public Relations Officer, Inspector Rodney Inniss was responding to the widespread circulation of a Wanted poster, which was posted by U.S Marshals sometime ago as well as an article posted by the FOX6NOW network in 2013, indicating that an Oscar Suarez, who was wanted on cocaine charges had vanished.

However, local authorities, after consultation with U.S embassy officials, have since sought to quash speculation that the two men, of similar ethnicity are in any way related.

Certainly they are two different individuals,” assured Inspector Inniss.

“We have been reliably informed by the U.S embassy that they are two different people. We are not pursuing that at all. It really just seems like malicious intent by whoever is circulating it.”

In fact, the speculation, he said, was causing tremendous distress to the family of the missing couple.

“I don’t know why people circulate these things. Perhaps it seems like a juicy story to circulate, but other than that, there’s no truth to it and that is very hurtful to the family and everybody associated with the situation, especially for those people still hoping for a happy ending to this.

“The family is really asking that we don’t defame the individuals involved. It is not fair to them and I agree with them,” stressed the police PRO.

Suarez and his companion, Devil went missing nearly three weeks ago after setting off on a jet ski from a beach near Holetown. Search efforts by local, regional and American officials were however suspended after nearly a week of unsuccessful searching.

Last Saturday, the jet ski, which is owned by water sports operator, Artneal Bear was found hundreds of miles away from Barbados near the French island of Guadeloupe, but the couple’s whereabouts remain a mystery.

In an interview with US news network, Fox News, Oscar Suarez’s sister, Susanna Cruz announced the couple’s families would be hiring a vessel to conduct their own search at sea.

“We plan to go on Thursday morning to a neighbouring island to charter a boat or ferry…to go up the entire coastline and pretty much look ourselves as a family,” said Cruz.

During the interview, she complained that local authorities were providing “very limited” information.

“The last we heard was that they found the jet ski and their investigations were continuing. The information that we are getting from them is very limited and I think they’re saying it’s because it’s an active investigation.

“We’ve asked questions ourselves and there seems to be a disconnect between what the police know and what we found out when we were there. We were essentially carrying out our own investigations. That’s how we felt,” the emotional sister added.

When contacted about the developments, Attorney General, Dale Marshall said he “certainly wouldn’t comment” on the most recent developments.   

“I am the Attorney General and I don’t investigate things. The police conduct thousands of investigations per year. This one happens to be front-of-mind for obvious reasons but I certainly wouldn’t comment on it. I certainly am not going to comment on an ongoing investigation,” he told Barbados TODAY.