Bermuda police back off from suicide verdict
The late Dimitri Pappas
Friday, September 16, 2005
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands: Bermuda police
are now in the United States talking with the parents of deceased Dimitri
Pappas about their son’s death. And this time
the police are no longer talking suicide but are, as they described it,
discussing other theories. Well-known Cayman
Islands accountant and businessman, Dimitri Pappas, was discovered dead in
Bermuda on 20 July 2005. He was found hanging in a clothes closet in a hotel
room. According to Dimitri’s mother, Sue
Kongsli: “Two officers from the Bermuda police met with me, my husband and my
lawyer recently.” She said they were scheduled to meet with Dimitri’s father,
on 15 September. “They made us know that the
case is not closed. They asked us about Dimitri’s childhood and his career.
They asked us about our theories surrounding his death. They said the physical
circumstances (surrounding the discovery of the body) looked like suicide but
everything else does not.
“They did not give us much information.
There was the sense that there was nothing that quite fit so far, so they had
to be looking at something else.” Whatever
the new direction of the officers’ discussions, this is a distinct change from
the firm, and far-too-early stamp of suicide that the Bermuda police had put
on the 36-year-old’s death only hours after his body was discovered in a hotel
in an upscale neighbourhood on the Island.
Speaking about their concern that his death was dismissed as suicide too
early, one of Dimitri’s very close friends said: “Virtually no one that we
knew was being questioned days and weeks after Dimitri’s death. Prior to this
we could not see anything happening.” Another
important fact indicating a change in direction on the part of the Bermuda
police, according to Mrs Kongsli, is the decision to question one of Dimitri’s
female associates who was with her son very late on the night of 19 July.
This woman, according to family members, had not been questioned months after
Mr Pappas’ death. “I understand that she has
now retained a lawyer,” Mrs Kongsli said.
Family and friends have relentlessly called foul play in this case and one
source, in speaking with Cayman Net News, said, “They know that
Dimitri’s parents have deep pockets and will not stop with the course of
investigation. “Too many precedents of wrong
verdicts have been set in Bermuda, with the police being accused of always
presenting an image that there are no real crime problems there, and many are
speaking about it.
“Pressure is now mounting in that regard
because Bermuda has only recently agreed to reopen the case of Rebecca
Middleton’s death.” Miss Middleton, 17, of
Canada, was visiting Bermuda with her best friend, Jasmine Meens, when she was
murdered in 1996 at Ferry Reach, a remote location.
She was stabbed, tortured, raped and murdered after accepting a ride with two
men, who agreed to take her home. Two local
men were arrested nine days after Rebecca was killed. The Attorney General
accepted a story of “consensual sex” from Kirk Mundy, 20, one of the accused,
despite Rebecca having been cut and stabbed at least 35 times.
Other sources in Bermuda said that new interest from the international network
television powerhouse, CBS’ 48 hours – sparked by Cayman Net News
stories online, as well as local media in Bermuda – is another reason for the
change in the investigation.
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