Andrew Baptist was just 24 years old when his life was snatched away at the hands of unknown gunmen in September 2011, leaving his two young children fatherless.
In this month’s Cayman Compass Cold Cases Files, in partnership with the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, we delve into Baptist’s still-unsolved killing, the third in our series profiling the series of cases from September 2011 in which the lives of four young Caymanian men were cut short.
Thirst for revenge ends in murder
Baptist, of West Bay, was executed in what police described as a revenge murder following the killing of Robert Mackford Bush days before.
Bush’s killing will be covered in a subsequent feature.
RCIPS Serious Crime Review team leader Detective Sergeant Peter Dean, in an interview with the Compass, said Baptist was an innocent man killed unjustly as he was wrongly identified as one of the shooters in Bush’s murder.
“At the time, we did receive information, shall we say ‘word on the street’, that Andrew was responsible for the murder of Robert Mackford Bush. We can say categorically at the time, September 2011, that was not correct and that Andrew was not one of the murderers of Robert Mackford Bush,” Dean, who heads the investigation, codenamed Operation Finch, said.
It was that allegation of guilt that triggered the series of retaliatory killings that September.
Dean said, immediately after Bush’s killing, there was talk that Baptist was involved and threats were made on his life.
“Andrew was aware of this and was nervous. Clearly that proved to be with a good reason, as two days later, this shocking offence occurred and we’re back to the same old sad story of… another young fellow that, yes, may have been going down the wrong road, but certainly still had the time to change his life around and become a solid and proper member of the Cayman community,” Dean said.
“Whether he would have taken [that opportunity] or not, he never got that opportunity because he was killed for, we believe, revenge that was not correct.”
Killing showed ‘innate evilness’
Recounting the events of Baptist’s murder, Dean said, on the night of 15 Sept. 2011 the young man was on Sand Hole Road, off Boatswain Bay Road in West Bay, at a friend’s home.
He said Baptist was seated with two others in the yard when unknown individuals ran out from the side of the house. One of his friends noticed what was happening and shouted “Run”.
“Two managed to make their escape fortunately… [but] unfortunately, Andrew Baptist was shot in the back and he fell to the floor,” Dean said.
He said that all murders are terrible for the friends and family of a victim, but Baptist’s killing was particularly shocking.
“When you consider that two men… targeted Andrew Baptist, as opposed to the other two fellas… they’ve shot him. They’ve chased him down, but then they both actually stood over him and, in reality, emptied their guns into Andrew Baptist… I’ve no doubt whatsoever he was dead immediately,” Dean said.
The assassins then escaped.
He said ballistics recovered from the scene established links among the four murders that month.
“The calibre of weapon that was used. The fact that one weapon was recovered at the scene of another murder and that casings at other scenes have been matched to this one.
So we know they are all interconnected,” he said.
In reviewing Baptist’s case, Dean said he found that murder particularly chilling, as he was shot numerous times.
“They stood facing each other, actually over the body, shooting at him. This is a completely helpless person and it, in my opinion, gives me the view of just innate evilness… the way in which they carried out this murder,” he said.
There was very little description of the suspects back then, he said, which is why Dean stressed the importance of the public coming forward with information.
“We know there are numerous people in the community that have information, not only about Andrew’s murder, but about all of the sequence of murders, all four of them. [W]e know people could, if they have the courage to stand up to the players, speak to us. They can give us vital evidence. We’ve got lots of information. What we need is, and what we’re struggling with, is actual evidence and that’s where we can go before the court and say, this is what’s happened, these are the people involved, and this is why it happened,” he said.
Dean said he is convinced there is a very good chance that these people are still in the community “going about with complete freedom at the moment”.
A family in mourning
Baptist’s murder was a traumatic event for those who knew and loved him and, even though a decade has passed since his killing, his relatives still struggle to come to terms with his death.
“He didn’t go around picking trouble with nobody. He didn’t go around [troubling] nobody’s things,” a family member of the murdered man told the Compass in a recent interview.
“He was just a pleasant child and I don’t think that he deserved what he got. I didn’t think he deserved the way that he went and what happened to him.”
The family member, who requested their identity be withheld given the circumstances of Baptist’s killing, said the young man had been threatened.
The relative recounted that, at the time, Baptist was fearful for his life and would often leave home at sundown and stay out all night, so if anyone attacked him, his family would not be hurt.
This, the relative said, was who Baptist was – someone who loved and looked out for his family.
“He was a loving son to his mother and he was a very pleasant child,” the relative said, adding the family needs closure.
“Everybody wants justice to be done, and everybody would love to find out really what happened to him and who it was that did that to him,” the relative said. The news of Baptist’s death in 2011 came as a shock to the family; his mother suffered a heart attack upon learning of her son’s murder, the relative said.
Baptist’s son, the relative added, still grieves for his father.
“He always saying, ‘I wish my dad was here now. I wish my dad was here.’ It’s a real hard thing for him because now he will not have a father figure and he grew up without a father figure,” the relative said, who appealed for information about the killer’s identity.
“It could be anybody, it could be [the killer’s] mother, sister, any family members or any friends or neighbours or anybody out there who knows what happened to him. If they could just come forward and just help to find who it was that killed [Baptist],” the relative said.
Anyone with information relating to Andrew Baptist’s murder can call the Serious Crime Review team confidential tip line at 649-2930.
Watch the latest episode in the Compass Cold Case Files here.
Related Videos
