Fiona to visit Goa to take Scarlett’s organs

SCARLETT MURDER CASE
Fiona to visit Goa to take Scarlett’s organs
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Panaji: British teenager Scarlett Keeling’s mother Fiona Mackeown will be coming to Goa to collect her daughter’s organs.
Speaking to TOI over the phone from her home in Devon, UK, Fiona said “I will be coming back in February to collect my daughter’s organs. I hope to be in India for the anniversary of Scarlett’s death.”
Scarlett’s body had been found on February 19, 2008 at Anjuna beach, and a case of rape and murder was registered. Fiona had taken her daughter’s body to the UK for a third autopsy after two forensic autopsies at the Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim. The autopsy at the coroner’s court in Devon had revealed that Scarlett’s kidneys, stomach and uterus were missing. Doctors at GMC’s forensic department had stated that the organs had been preserved for tests.
While Scarlett’s liver and pieces of her lungs were deposited in a sealed envelope by the Goa police with the children’s court, half of the uterus and slides containing tissues were collected from the Goa Medical College and Hospital by the CBI for examination. Some of the organs utilized by the Forensic Science Laboratory, Mumbai, for chemical analysis were preserved for a period of three weeks and thereafter destroyed as per the existing protocol, it being “hazardous” to preserve them.
Fiona, who was initially skeptical of returning to India as a case of negligence was filed against her before the Women and Child department, now aspires to return home with her daughter’s organs to give a decent burial to Scarlett. “The coroner won’t release Scarlett’s body until the investigations are over in India,” she said.
Meanwhile, the CBI is yet to meet Fiona to record her statement. “I haven’t spoken to the CBI yet in person but they have agreed via email to meet them in the second week of January,” she said.

January 12,2009, The Times of India, Goa edition