Murder case at critical point
(CNS): Two weeks after the brutal murder of 21-year old Sabrina Schirn police issued a statement today saying that a dedicated line of enquiry was being pursued. “Officers are extremely pleased with the progress of the investigation, which is at a critical and sensitive juncture, and advise the public against speculations that might interfere with the desired outcome of the investigation to bring Sabrina’s killer or killers to justice,” the RCIPS said.
The Investigation is being led by Inspector Kim Evans and includes an experienced team of detectives and other specialist support officers who have examined several critical leads and are pursing a dedicated line of enquiry, police said adding that a further update on the progress of the investigation will be issued later this week.
A post mortem on the body of Schirn by a forensic pathologist from Miami revealed last week that she had suffered multiple sharp force and chop injuries. Sabrina’s body, was found in bush land in East End on Tuesday 17 March by friends and family less than one mile from where the car she was last seen driving had been discovered by a local farmer on Sunday 15 March.
“This was clearly an act of extreme violence which resulted in the tragic death of young Sabrina,” said Detective Inspector Kim Evans last week. “Our condolences go out to her family and friends.”
Anyone who can assist is asked to contact the Major Incident Room at Bodden Town police station on 947-2220 or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477 (TIPS). All persons calling Crime Stoppers remain anonymous, and are eligible for a reward of up to $1000, should their information lead to an arrest or recovery of property/drugs.
Category: Headline News
Let’s not miss the point here.
A young lady was threatned and then she turns up missing and murdered a few days later. To date we haven’t seen or been asked to help identify WHO threatned her.
Please end this "we don’t want to accuse someone who is innocent, head in the sand mentality". This is called a "person of interest" and would be the first person the please want to talk to. If you are familiar at all with law in the Cayman Islands, police CAN hold someone for questioning, legally!
Second, please tell me just ONE case where someone was publicly assulted because they were "questioned/accused" of someonething. This is 18th century mentality.
Third, your mentality is exactly like those who don’t want a sex registers database, and beleive that it woudl harm the community. That is again 18th century mentality that the public are fools and would harm the criminal. This is the 21st century, there are laws in place to deal with people who want to take justice into their own hands. Again, you can’t provide a single example where this has happened in the Cayman Islands.
Fourth, do you think it is any coincidence that the police NEVER release the actual arrest versus conviction statistics, whe most other countries in the civilized world do. There is a reason for this, and that is the public may not want to see how the results are.
Fifth, I agree that police need more training, why when someone is murdered you have to bring in a forensic pathologist. It seems that many items, due to lack of handling, etc may have already been compromised by this happening.
I am not asking RCIPS to do anythign different, other than ask the public for health. It is no wonder the local police dont’ even have a crimestoppers website like most countries asking for help. I feel sorry for Sabrina’s family and the fact they had to go discover her body themselves, that is truly appaling, I pray for them.
CNS: The local Crimestoppers does in fact have a website http://www.crimestoppers.ky . There’s a banner and a link to it on the bottom of every CNS page.
Okay, well having a criminal justice background then you are well aware that once someone is arrested there is a certain amount of time during which they can be heldwithout charge before they must be released right? Once they have been charged the matter needs to go before the courts and the Police require real evidence to "make their case". If they arrest someone without adequate evidence then it is a simple matter for an attorney to say it was a false arrest …then what? If they charge someone and have to keep delaying the matter in court while they compile evidence then the individual stands a pretty good chance of getting their case thrown out…then what?
Answer these questions honestly; if the police released a sketch and a family member of the possible killer saw it – what would they do? Turn their family member in or warn them, shelter them? What if some member of the public decided they KNEW who that was on the sketch – hunted them down and brutalized them and it turned out to be the wrong person? How many cases of this have we seen already here?
Believe it or not – there ARE places to hide in Cayman.
I do not want to " live in silence and pretend that RCIPS knows what they are doing." but I don’t want to hand over justice to the public either. I agree they need more training – no question there. As bad as the RCIP may be – the chances that justice at the hands of the general populace will be better is slim to none.
I just believe that Cayman has a way of dividing itself – kicking and pulling each other down rather than trying to support ourselves and with that mentality I do not see how things could ever improve. You are more likely to hear people talking about how useless the police are than discussing ways to actually help them. Sabrina’s death was tragic so were the deaths of the other women and men on our islands at the hands of violence and abuse but as long as people keep pointing fingers and diverging the blame, I don’t see it changing.
SORRY CAN SOMEBODY EXPLAIN THIS TO ME BECAUSE I JUST DON’T GET IT ONE BIT!
“Officers are extremely pleased with the progress of the investigation, which is at a critical and sensitive juncture, and advise the public against speculations that might interfere with the desired outcome of the investigation to bring Sabrina’s killer or killers to justice,” the RCIPS said.
Ok then, what progress is there? Here the RCIPS says they advise the public to stop making speculations??????? What are you saying? You can’t pick sense out of nonsense? Or that you are still waiting for some miracle that will cover all your lose ends? Don’t you think that following up everything you hear might just lead you somewhere even if it seems like nonsense "to you"? Because you even still state here that her "killer or killers" so you really are still not sure.
The thing that get’s me in this is that this will be another one of Cayman’s murders gone cold! God knows I hope it is not the case because the RCIPS got to at least be able to solve more than one murder out of the many many not solved. Seriously, what are they doing in those stations??? On the real, please do yourself a favor and get some training in this field.
How about doing the training in Barbados again for the regular recruits and some serious CSI training with some core groups overseas. We don’t hesitate to send our K9 police overseas for dog handling training or our traffic officers to learn defensive driving.
Why not send the ones who will have to deal with the real stuff? I am still teed off with the RCIPS and this goes back to a few years when they were only able to have someone assist them in enquiries. I know that "hearsay can’t go to court" but maybe hearsay would get some concrete evidence instead of being tossed aside as gossip. On this island there is a lot of "where there is smoke there is fire". They need to learn (island style) how to "pick sense out of nonsense". I know that this is not a TV show but first 48 is based on real life cases, and as someone commented in places that are 20 times as big as Cayman. What about the the story the other day about 3 being arrested at the airport? Makes you think doesn’t it.
Your missing the point!
No this isn’t a TV show, but this young lady was THREATNED and to date nothing (Sketch of the person, etc) has been released. Don’t you think that if the police knew she was threatned and then she turned up missing they WOULD have released a sketch of the person to track them down and question them. In the real world there are "person’s of interest", and this person should have been the FIRST person on the list. Come on, we are on a small island, and if information is not released within a short time of someone missing, that person could have left the island. There is not place to "hide" in Grand Cayman, other than just leaving the island.
NO ONE is asking for "regular updates" or an "inside view", but the public deserves to know and to help out the police if they are seeking a "person of interest". It isn’t a coincidence that she was threatned and then turned up murdered a few days ago. But then again, maybe you just want to live in silence and pretend that RCIPS knows what they are doing.
Wouldn’t you want the public’s help if you were threatened and then turned up murdered a few days later. This abuse of women has got to stop, maybe (if there was an sense here) they would set up a system to seek the public’s help before murders get on an airplane and leave. A possible solution would be to set up what the US calls an "Amber Alert" when someone goes missing…..this seems like then at least we would know to keep our eyes open, and that immigration could be notified as well in case we had someone jumping to hope on an airplane.
By the way, I do have a criminal justice background, and did attend law school, which is more than I can say for most of the RCIPS who weren’t even trained, especially to the nuances of a small island.
Your comments are the most "to the point" writing that I have seen or heard in all of the postings.
Congratulations.
Here is our challenge as a community. Domestic violence has engendered a high tolerance level in Cayman. That is our fault. The Police have not been, by regulation, sensible or sensitive enough to boot. That is our fault and we must act to change this. Economic decline will increase the probability of relationship breakdown. This requires more understanding and readyness for intervention.
Coop assistance with law enforcement from the Women Resource Centre and Social Service would help. All these units are underfunded and understaffed.
I am suggesting that the WRC could facilitate intervention on behalf of challenged parties such as what confronted the Schirn and Gould families. This may require increase in funding and professional legal assistance. The Police must be willing to accommodate this additional resource which would only work to their benefit.
Currently there is a feeling that there is no recourse if you find yourself in need of assistance, with grave concerns that may not pass the Police credibility test, and thus not be validated by the very agencies designed for protection.
The first 48 hours are critical for soul recovery. The Police have been instrumental in dramitic rescue and preventions, understanding that rule as a central factor for positive outcomes. However Police actions predicated on hard nosed-incorrect assumptions have led to fatal out comes as well. it happens all most every where. They will not get it right all the time. Nobody will. But evidence of inexhustable effort is the only escape hatch, in order that credibility can be maintained and faith continue.
We cannot allow the feeling to settle in that action on behalf of a citizen may be driven by specifics of past past behaviour or social standing. This characteristic harm community and create social discord among other dangers.
So lets do some thing about it. It begins with sensible thought and talk.
I agree that the police have disappointed the public with this and other investigations and I am truly disheartened to see the impact their reluctance to act has caused to the public view.
However I am also very alarmed that so many members of the public seem to feel as if we are entitled to regular updates in ANY investigation. This is not a tv show – we do not get "behind the scenes" views of the investigation and there is a reason for this! Under the best circumstances the Cayman public is too quick to take marl road gospel and run with it, creating difficulties and possibly compromising the outcome of the RCIP’s work.
Let’s be honest, it was probably too many people who were "chatting" Sabrina in the first place why the police were led to believe that she may not have been in any real danger. Has that not occured to people?
What would the public have to say if the police disclosed everything and now could not capture our islands criminals because the criminals always knew they were being investigated before hand so they simply disappeared or destroyed evidence! Or come time to go to court, Sabrina’s killer/killers were able to get off because they felt they had been denied their rights and were treated inhumanely or unjustly or discriminated against? Then what?
Do you think you can prosecute a case in court by jumping up and down and pointing – yelling at the judge "It was him!". Get serious.
Say whatever you wish about the RCIP – the majority of it you can justify if you really want to. But please, just let them do what they have been trained to do without making things difficult for them. If you REALLY want to make a difference and not just "run off your mouth" then go and take some criminal psychology classes (they are avaibale online) or some first year law courses, learn something, further your knowledge and then apply to the RCIP!!!
It is so easy to have a lot to say when you know absolutely nothing. Be an asset to our island and not just an empty barrel!
Wow, this one doesn’t take a genious to solve. However, it appears RCIPS is completely incompetent. Let’s look at the facts.
1. She is threatned at her job, Blockbuster in Grand Harbour
2. Police do little (at best) or nothing about this incident.
3. She turns up dead a few days later.
Now it seems to me, they would have had a picture (possibly video) or at least a sketch of the person from store employees that threatned her. How come we haven’t seen this yet to date? Surely on a small island, if that picture was distributed we woudl know WHO threatned her. He should be the FIRST one questioned. They haven’t even released that, which is ludicrous! Anyone every watch The First 48? They can solve murders in 48 hours in a big city like Miami, but it takes RCIPS several weeks in a population 1/20th the size? Come on, RCIPS is a bunch of jokers, and haven ZERO ability to solve anything. In the meantime this person who threatned her possibly left or at the very least is running around the island still. The people need to demand MUCH more from RCIPS.
It is great to see this investigation has step up since Kennett come aboard. No matter when RCIPS catch the killer(s) the actionsof Evans in the earlyer stages of this case cannot go unpunished, he should lose his job. He was promoted in an instant by a Commissioner who did not know his enemies yet, why can’t he loose his rank as quick? Caymanians, do not let Evans use any success to excuse he actions.
“This was clearly an act of extreme violence which resulted in the tragic death of young Sabrina,” said Detective Inspector Kim Evans last week. “Our condolences go out to her family and friends.”
BullS**t! this is what Evans said earlier…
"According to Sabrina’s mother, Detective Inspector J. Kim Evans indicated on Saturday that Sabrina was “eluding” police, and that she would be arrested when she turned up again. Mr. Evans also, according to Hope Schirn, said family members should stop distributing missing person flyers around the community and “let the police do their job.”
Come on then Evans, when will you do your job?
RCIPS, deal with this fool!
The police need to keep the public informed about what is going on as I think we have had enough disappointment in regards to this "investigation" and it would be nice to know something is actually being done.
We can only pray that what ever evidence is being collected can stand up in a court of law and will eventually lead to a conviction. This too is where the police drops the ball.
POLICE NEED TO BE MORE VIGILENT AND SERIOUS ABOUT REPORTS MADE TO THEM
On many occasions reports are made to police about incidents and majority of the police does not show much interest. They will collect a report, about something serious, put it aside until they hear that the person is dead or half dead. I have always defended the police when its necessary but most of the time they do fail to respond quickly about domestic matters. They are lacking behind in this area.
I do not know what took place with young Sabrina, but It is disgusting that it took a week to find her body. I do not know how the public feels, but I see no reason why the police have to wait 24 hours to look for a person that has been reported missing. We cannot afford to take that chance. A life can be saved by responding quickly. It does not matter if the person is shacking up with someone. That peron should be sought out once they have gone missing.
It just got to change. Too much serious events have been taken place on this Island and there is no space for the police to become complacent. Fingers are going to be pointed at everyone of you, so I would suggest that you have a good reason why there should be 24 hours waiting. Stop going by the book, use inititative. Just think if was your child, your mother or father. Would you want the police to wait 24 hours? Blessed
nothing against Mrs Estella Scott Roberts I think she was a brave woman, but it didnt take 48 hrs for the RCIP to go looking for her every life has value its very sad to see that our RCIP dont feel the same!!!!!!!