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Missing organs spark fresh controversy
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Tue, Apr 15, 2008
The Straits Times
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PANAJI (GOA) - A FRESH row has erupted over the death of a British teenager in Goa after her organs were found to be missing following a new autopsy in Britain.
The autopsy, the third since 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling was raped and murdered in the Indian resort state of Goa in February, revealed that her stomach, uterus and both kidneys had been removed, said Mr Vikram Varma, a lawyer representing the teenager's mother.
Indian investigators - who have been accused by the girl's mother of covering up the murder - conducted two autopsies on Scarlett after she was found dead on Goa's popular Anjuna beach.
Scarlett's mother Fiona MacKeown had insisted on a third autopsy in Britain.
| 'Fiona is shocked and disturbed about this when she came to know' about the latest report, her lawyer said.
Ms MacKeown, who is in Britain for the burial of her daughter, said she intended to go back to India sooner than expected after the findings of the third autopsy.
A doctor who conducted the first autopsy - on the basis of which police initially dismissed the death as a drowning - has been suspended.
Last week, the Goa government sacked a police official for lapses in the investigation.
A second examination was conducted at Ms MacKeown's demand, and the police launched a murder investigation after that.
But forensic experts in Goa have dismissed suspicions of foul play over the missing organs, saying that Scarlett's body parts were needed for the medical examinations.
They said the absence of the teen's vital body organs was not a mystery, but a mandatory requirement of forensic practice.
'Two autopsies were conducted on the body and, for each autopsy, half of each kidney was removed. So, it is but natural that both the kidneys are not there,' said a forensic expert who took part in one of the autopsies conducted on the teen's body.
'We sealed everything and gave it to the police,' said another forensic expert who was part of the team that conducted the second autopsy.
However, Ms MacKeown's lawyer said he would take up the matter with the authorities in Goa.
'We want to ascertain the facts and circumstances of this unacceptable situation,' he said.
Last month, police arrested a bartender and an alleged drug dealer for conspiracy to murder. They said the two gave the girl a cocktail of illegal drugs before one of them raped her repeatedly and left her for dead.
Police have said Scarlett was dumped unconscious in shallow water, where she drowned, but a forensics report last month suggested she had been forcibly held under water.
The report also said she had not ingested enough drugs and alcohol to have become unconscious.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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