No pathologist for Tobago autopsies

Mark Nurse was shot dead on December 19, in Carnbee, Tobago. Two weeks later, his relatives have been unable to get closure with a funeral since his body remains on ice as police are struggling to get a pathologist from Trinidad to come over to Tobago to conduct an autopsy.

Nurse, 40, an MI4 security officer, was Tobago’s tenth murder victim for 2019. He was shot once in the head during a robbery around 3.30 am. According to police, Nurse and another security officer, Atoyia Charles, were in the process of transporting the day’s sales from Penny Savers Supermarket on Carnbee Main Road, to the bank, when bandits approached.

As Charles left the building with the money bag she was approached by two masked gunmen who ordered her to hand over the bags. Charles shot in the leg and shoulder. Nurse was shot in the head with the father of two later being pronounced dead on the scene. The bandits escaped with $160,000. Charles was treated and later discharged from hospital.

ACP Vernon Roberts told Newsday on Thursday that the investigator is still waiting for a pathologist. He said a request was made for the forensic autopsy to be done but up to Wednesday, New Year’s day, no information was forthcoming on when the autopsy will be conducted. “Remember it happened around the holiday time where flights would have been difficult to get,” Roberts said.

While Nurse’s body remains in the Scarborough Hospital mortuary, his widow Clarissa Nurse told Newsday she is getting more and more frustrated as the days go by. She said all funeral arrangements have been finalised and the family is waiting for the body to be released by police. Nurse’s funeral service will be kept in Tobago and he will then be taken to Trinidad to be cremated. This was his wish.

Newsday was told there is no resident forensic pathologist in Tobago. Clinical autopsies are conducted for natural deaths only but for homicide, Tobago police must send a request for a forensic pathologist based in Trinidad to come over to Tobago to conduct the autopsy. A police officer told Newsday this process is very frustrating and has in the past, impacted murder investigations in Tobago.

In 2017, the bodies of Sylvester Marshal and Anita Jeffrey were kept in cold storage for over a month before autopsies were conducted by forensic pathologist Dr Eslyn McDonald-Burris in June. Marshal and Jeffrey were originally from Trinidad. Jeffrey collapsed and died on May 28 at Mason Hall near Twelve Tribes after attending a religious event. Marshal was found dead in an old house in Parlatuvier days before.