Skeletal remains found in a heavily wooded area of George Town in January have been identified as a man who went missing in 2003.
Keith Augustus Balkaran, of Jamaica, was believed to have gone missing around 8pm Saturday, 31 May, 2003. His disappearance was later reported to police, but he was never found.
He was last seen earlier that evening at an address on Fairview Road, George Town, according to a police press release issued at the time.
Mr. Balkaran’s death is not believed to be suspicious, Royal Cayman Islands Police detectives said.
The skeletal remains were discovered at approximately 3.40 p.m. on Friday, 29 January 2010, by a man who was clearing a large area of overgrown vegetation off Bobby Thompson Way.
Investigators said at the time that the remains had been in that particular location for a number of years.
The RCIPS investigation team began reviewing historic missing person files and extensive forensic testing was carried out to
try and ascertain the identity of the deceased.
Detective Superintendent Marlon Bodden, the officer leading the investigation has confirmed that the identity of the deceased has
been established and that the enquiry is now closed. The family of the deceased has been made aware.
“The deceased was reported missing in June of 2003, when he was aged 38 years,” Mr. Bodden said. “Despite extensive enquiries carried out at the time by the police and his family the deceased was never traced. Over the past 7 years his family have been left wondering what had become of him.
“I will not make any comment about the circumstances surrounding his passing other than to say that there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death,” Mr. Bodden said.
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It is the duty of the RCIP to let the public know what the forensic tests or examinations show. If there’s nothing to hide why can’t the public know exactly what happened to this young man?
Enough of these coverups.
Somthing is seriously suspicious if Mr. Marlon Bodden will not or can not freely tell the people of the Cayman Islands what happened in their community concerning the life of this young man. The very fact that he is with holding information claiming that there’s no fowl play leaves me no other choice BUT TO BELIEVE THAT THERE IS VERY MUCH FOWL PLAY INVOLVED HERE.
Our RCIP is not only lazy but reluctant to solve even the simplest of cases.
Mr. Baines its time to throw in your towel so we can get a replacement.
Another unsolved mystery RCIP has no intention of solving. I RECOGNIZE THIS AS A COVERUP WHEN I SEE ONE.
Someone is settling with the family quietly and they need to hire a lawyer to get to the bottom of this.
OK guys, let’s not jump to conclusions here…let’s give Mr. Bodden the benefit of the doubt and see how much of this we can figure out in order to conclude if Mr. Bodden was right in ASSUMING that there was no reason to suspect fowl play in the death:
1. The man DISAPPEARED somewhere in the approaching or absolute night. We are able to conclude this because the police said that he was seen earlier on that evening. Night comes after evening. The majority of crimes are committed at night. The disposal of a body would be most successfully executed at night versus attempting the same feat at day.
2. Despite EXTENSIVE INQUIRIES nothing was uncovered about him in their following investigation. This is no reason to be suspicious. And I’ve heard this phrase ‘extensive inquiries’ so often that I’m now advocating that it be printed on all their literature: ‘RCIPS – the home of extensive inquiries that yield no results’.
3. His remains were found off the road, in a wooded area 7 years later. This would indicate that the area obviously was not immediately near to passers by, neither pedestrian nor vehicular, as the scent of his decomposing body would have drawn an alert. But there is NO REASON TO BE SUSPICIOUS as to how the body ended up there.
4. There is no information given to the public at the time, not by the police nor by the family/friends (according to this report) to indicate that he was under the influence of any drug that might have caused him to become bewildered. That revelation would have strengthened their cause of NON-SUSPICIOUS death.
MY conclusion(s:
You guys win – hands down. SUSPICIOUS is the only conclusion that I can arrive at regarding this death.
Here’s really how it should be done: Don’t wait for any of them to resign. We are the people that pay their salaries. We decide when their performance warrants termination.
@Dubai and Tiger.
you two have watched too many movies
A man goes missing and is reported as such in 2003.
He is never found, had never resurfaced in Cayman or any other country.
7 years later his remains are found in the ‘bush’ by someone who just happened to be working in the area, purely by chance.
But…
‘His death is not considered suspicious nor is foul play suspected’ before even an autopsy is carried out on his remains to determine the cause of his death.
Makes you wonder what kind of search and investigation was carried out when he first went missing 7 years ago….
The Cayman Islands can be a very, very dangerous place at times….
Editor’s note: An autopsy was conducted in this case by Dr. Bruce Hyma, the Miami-Dade County medical examiner.
Sorry, missed that bit but then…
What are the results of that autopsy and have they been released, along with the ‘closed case’ file on the missing man ?
I’m assuming that the RCIPS still had an open file on him, seeing that his whereabouts or circumstances of disapperance had never been determined.
Pardon me for being a bit ‘thick’ here but my natural human instincts tells me that a person does not just ‘walk off into the bush’ and dies of his own accord, unless he got terminally ill or committed suicide, ‘in the bush’.
Like I’ve said before, the Cayman Islands have been and continue to be a very, very dangerous place for some people and not for the reasons that most people might believe.
I’ll leave it at that.
Editor’s note: The Compass is requesting a copy of Dr. Hyma’s autopsy and the police case file under the provisions of the FOI Law.
Maybe he was a victim of FOUL play rather than a bird attck (Fowl play).
Watchmiwatchyou,
You missed the boat I’m afraid. Way to gullible all to very quickly, it doesn’t take that much to deceive you.
WATCHMIWATCHYOU, come again, if you want to heLp Mr Marlon Bodden, please chose another venue, not this time you are obviously lost on this one and EASILY FOOLED!.
He’s wearing a shirt in the police photo that says ‘Cayman Atlantis’ maybe someone could contact the owner there to find out if this man had any problems with anyone or was he threatened in any way.Was he depressed about something, did he show any signs of depression.If he had problem, with who?
Not so fast WatchmiWatchyou,
In all my years of legal practice this sounds very much like a case where there was indeed some fowl play.
Perhaps the C.I. Govt. has limited funds in its budget to pursue this one. Or like many other x-pats there’s not very much interest demonstrated in solving crimes where an x-pat has been killed or fallen victim to a serious crime. Surprises with dates an times of the crimes and reports released continues. This is pretty much the way it is always handled. "With limited interest and limited action taken."
Had this been a Caymanian missing not only would the body have been found but reason for death would have already been released in 2003. This is what now 2010?
Guys wake up, there’s discrimination everywhere. In their eyes he’s only a Jamaican in their eyes so not much money from the budget will be allocated towards solving this mystery.the majority of us concerned see him as somebody’s son, somebody’s loved one.
As a matter of fact Dubai and Tiger are right on target, they make a lot of legal sense.They make a good investigative team.
@Tiger. You really need to work on your reading and spelling before spouting off on a public forum. FOWL play means he was playing with chickens and his shirt does not say Cayman Atlantis. The first word is incomplete and the last word is ATLANTIC.
Unnah COULDN’T have read past the first sentence in the last comment that I made.
Regardless of the man’s nationality and our budget, he deserves a full and open investigation.
Don’t jump up on me about gullible. If you really knew me you would know that gullible is certainly not a part of my personality traits. And easily fooled? I am sensible enough to know that all the postings on this page so far are submitted by people who chose to protect their identities and it would be idiotic for me to analyse anyone’s character based on brief comments on a public forum.
Until then, Dubai, I’ll be watching this spot to see if you or anyone else who doesn’t know who I am has any other names to call me, after having misinterpreted the contents of my comments.
June 2003, more than 14 months before Ivan’s wrath and destruction and flooding: a corpse could have and probably was moved from its original location during Ivan. Does anyone remember if there were any old buildings or shacks in that area before Ivan? How much vegetation was there prior to Ivan? Remember the landscape in some parts of the island changed considerably after the storm. Are there any records available from Ivan as to water movement at the location? More investigation is needed.