Cruise visitor found phone

(CNS): A cruise ship passenger who happened to be snorkelling some fifty metres off the public beach on Wednesday was the person who found the cell phone that belongs to Nathan Clarke, who has been missing since Saturday evening. The police revealed that around noon yesterday, the visitor spotted something glistening on the seabed as he snorkelled not far from the shore line where the missing teachers' aide was scene before he disappeared. The snorkeller had retrieved the phone and had intended to take it as a keepsake of his visit to Cayman until he heard of the missing person hunt from staff in a local store, who advised him to call the police. (Photo: Nathan on 24 February)

DS Marlon Bodden, who has oversight of the investigation, said Thursday that the visitor was able to give an accurate and detailed description of where he was when he found Nathan’s phone, which was an area which has already been thoroughly searched, but investigators were unable to draw any conclusions from the location.

Given the currents and tidal movement, Bodden explained that the discovery does not necessarily offer any specific indication of what may have happened to Nathan. Items in the water and on the seabed can shift considerably within a very short period of time, he noted.

“RCIPS Marine teams will continue to search the area with a view to finding any other property which may assist in establishing what has happened to Nathan,” Bodden said at a second media briefing on the disappearance of Nathan who has now been missing for five days.

He indicated that the focus of Thursday’s searches would now be in the water but a call had also gone out to all of the cruise lines whose ships have called into Cayman over the last five days to see if any other property had unwittingly been taken off island.

Although it is not certain whether Nathan was carrying his keys at the time of his disappearance, his girlfriend, Lisa Beck, has been unable to locate them since he went missing. Also, Nathan was believed to have a wallet with him but he may not have been wearing shoes. He was at the time of his disappearance wearing beige shorts but he had given his T-shirt to Lisa sometime before he was last seen at around 8:30pm on Saturday night.

Bodden also revealed that, according to information from the telecommunications provider, the last call made from the phone, which has now been recovered, was placed at 8:07 and ended at 8:09pm on Saturday evening.  “There was no further activity registered on that phone,” Bodden stated. “The reported activity after he was last seen has now been confirmed as calls being made into Nathan’s phone from friends. None of those calls connected.”

The senior officer was, however, reluctant to reveal if the police were aware of the movements of the cell phone since Nathan’s disappearance as tracked by cell sites based on the signals from the handset and the incoming calls. He denied that there were any signal from the phone in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Speaking about the mounting speculation about what had happened to Nathan, Bodden said there was no reason to suspect he was the victim of a crime. While concerns were obviously mounting now that he had been missing for a significant time, the senior officer said there was no evidence that Nathan was abducted and added that the speculation was both unhelpful and causing distress to Nathan’s family.

Bodden emphasized that it remained a missing person enquiry and while everyone was still hopeful they had to be realistic and, as time went on, they were becoming more concerned about what had happened to the missing 31-year-old man.

The senior officer also dismissed allegations that there were any problems between Lisa, her parents and Nathan’s parents and said they had all been kept abreast of developments and were fully supportive of the RCIPS and the efforts of dozens of volunteers involved in the search.

Philip Beck said that his daughter’s fiancé was a strong swimmerand he treated the sea with a lot of respect as a watersports instructor but he could not say whether or not Nathan would have been inclined to swim after dark because his disappearance was such a mystery.

An information email line has been set up nathanclarkeinfo@yahoo.com and people can call the RCIPs on 949-3999 or 949-3990.

Details are also being updated on the Finding Nathan Facebook page and the next dive will take palce at 4pm this afternoon. Volunteers are asked bring their own equipment and to report to the RCIPS command post.