Scarlett's organs sent to UK coroner, says mother

Scarlett's organs sent to UK coroner, says mother
Preetu Nair , TNN

PANAJI: Fiona MacKeown, mother of the slain British teenager Scarlett Keeling, said that the Indian authorities have finally released the remaining organs of her daughter and they have been sent to the coroner in the UK. However, Scarlett will not be buried till the investigations in India are over, she added.

Speaking to TOI from her home in Devon, Fiona said, "I haven't received the organs yet, but everything is proceeding in the right direction. The CBI has released the organs. The organs won't come to me but go directly to the UK coroner".

Scarlett was found dead at the Anjuna beach on February 18, 2008. First, the police dismissed it as a case of unnatural death, but later they arrested two people for drugging and raping Scarlett before leaving her to die on the beach, but MacKeown alleged cover-up.

"There is half a uterus and a piece of liver and kidney as far as I know. The UK coroner is very keen to do tests on the uterus and the kidney. I expect the uterus will reveal Scarlett's sexual activities before she died and the kidney should reveal details of drink and drugs that were consumed before she died although tests on hair have already been done to expose this," she said.

Incidentally, MacKeown, while taking Scarlett's body to UK, had said that she would conduct tests in UK. But when the UK coroner revealed that several of her body parts were missing, MacKeown alleged that she was kept in the dark about the missing organs by the forensic doctors and police.

"I had expected them to take bits, samples, but I brought her back and there was a lot missing. Her spleen and her uterus. All that had gone. They told me it was normal procedure, but I tried to tie them down to find out what the exact procedure was, but there isn't one. It seems that they do what they want", she had said.

Though now happy that she has finally got her daughter's organs, she admitted that it would be sometime before she would be able to bury her daughter. "I don't think the coroner will let me bury her until the investigations are over in India. I don't even know when her body will be released to me," she added.

Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has approached the high court of Bombay at Goa for a letter of request to interrogate two British citizens in connection with the murder of 15-year-old Scarlett. In a petition filed in the court, the investigating agency has said that a letter rogatory, or a formal request, from the court is essential to question the victim's mother Mackeown and Charles Carter, who had allegedly seen Scarlett sometime before she was found dead on Anjuna beach. A letter rogatory is a formal communication sent by a court to a foreign court seeking the latter's assistance in recording the statements of witnesses residing there.

25 May 2009, The Times of India, Goa edition