Acting Police Commissioner Gilbert Reyes has instructed that detectives of the Homicide Bureau in Trinidad take charge of the investigations into the brutal attack on British couple Peter Greene, 65, and his wife Murium, 59, at their Tobago home over the weekend. He has appointed acting ASP Johnny Abraham, Insp Stanley Ramdeen and PC Sunil Ramoutar to take over the probe from Tobago officers. During a brief telephone interview late yesterday, Reyes confirmed that he gave instructions for the officers to take over the probe. Reyes, however, expressed confidence that the officers would assist in bring closure to the incident. The officers were at the Piarco International Airport with suitcases in hand, waiting as "standby" passengers to get on a flight to Tobago last night.
Abraham Ramdeen and Ramoutar, a police source said, were ordered to find the person/s responsible for the heinous crime against the Greenes: "They have been chosen because of their successes in the past in solving several high-profile homicides and kidnappings, including the recently-concluded Balram "Balo" Maharaj kidnapping and murder case in which seven Trinidadians were found guilty last week." At the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex earlier in the day, Muruim was seen smiling and chatting with relatives as she remained in bed, partially bandaged. Even though she appeared shaken by the incident, a sense of comfort was in the atmosphere as her relatives spent most of the day at her bedside. Sources said her adopted son flew in from England, while one of her sisters came in from Canada. Relatives of Murium, however, refused to speak with the media.
"I am not speaking with the press," said a woman with an British accent as she left cubicle 113 at the High Dependency Unit (HDU), where Murium remained warded, and made her way to the nearby Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where Greene remained in a critical but stable condition. Moments later, an Englishman emerged from Murium's cubicle. He, too, refused to comment. He said: "I am very sorry but I cannot comment on anything right now. I wish that I could have assisted you with whatever information you wanted but I am sorry I cannot." When asked if he was a relative of Murium, he simply replied, no. But he admitted he was a friend when further questioned. Up to late yesterday, relatives were at the bedside of both victims at the medical facility. As members of the media waited in the hallway to speak with the couple's relatives, scores of security guards approached and ordered the media to leave the facility.
A man, who appeared to be a security officer, said he had specific instructions from the administration that members of the media were not allowed on the ward: "I was told that people from the media, radio, TV and newspaper must wait at the front of the building or we (security guards) won't have any jobs." However, media personnel protested and said the facility was a public place and they were waiting to secure an interview with relatives of Greene. Shortly after, a female security officer approached and said they responded to a report that members of the media were on the wards trying to take pictures of patients. The allegation was denied by members of the media who later left the facility after relatives of the couple sent a message that they were not interested in speaking with the media.
