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Richard & Grace Wheeler Murder Case - Page 2

Every time the police make an arrest, especially a swift arrest, it looks suspect. Or desperate! Their credibility is shot. In a situation like this one that caused severe anxiety throughout the island, it would serve to calm the public.
As we saw with the Greenes, the public might calm down but remain unconvinced.
It doesn't help to hear a heavy silence coming from those in charge. That just feeds rumor and encourages mis-information to spread.
As for the race factor - it certainly seems to point in a direction.
Except, that approx 4 years ago or so, a Tobagonian woman was out tending her garden in mid afternoon, when she was hacked to death. No one arrested to my knowledge.

Case Murder Wheeler Grace and Richard

I'm following this case and I think whomever is behind it wants to make a point. Just today a friend of mine from England who lives here in the west told me how worried she is about the situation. I told her not to worry but I don't know what to say. Our country is very unsafe and I live here in Westmoorings and we have crime here as well. The Greenes have been following all these cases, I saw them posting on the Trinidad Express sometime ago.

Richard & Grace Wheeler Murder Case Caribbean / Tobago & Trinidad

The viciousness of the attack and the profile of all the people involved makes me very concerned.

Page 2 Case Murder Wheeler Grace and Richard

The fact of the matter is this - WE citizens have to be safe. If we are safe, our visitors are automatically safe too. So we need to understand that solving these killings is really about US, not visitors!

Of course tourism can exist in high crime areas - other countries in the region have worse crime (Yes that exists! (Mexico, DR etc). Their tourists stay inside enclaves or gated tourist communities.
What a shame if we got to that stage!

Case Murder Wheeler Grace and Richard

Margarit, you are very right in your analysis. I am hoping the persons who were detained with regards to this case, are in fact the right people. I did not hear they have been charged. Any updates?

Richard & Grace Wheeler Murder Case

Name: John
Country:

Title: Richard and Grace Wheeler Murder case

Comments: Pandora, I agree with you there must be a link between these horrific murders and can suggest what to me is the most obvious link.
I am an Englishman married for coming up 40 years to a Trinidadian, my wife and I enjoyed an idyllic honeymoon on Tobago in 1976, flying in to Crown Point in a 12 seater aircraft, the airport was a very small affair. We were directed to contact a Mr Robinson at Scarborough bus station from whom we rented a small Honda motorcycle on which we explored and enjoyed every nook and cranny of what, to us, was paradise on earth.It was a stark contrast to the Trinidad of the day where we had to exercise a certain amount of caution and where houses all had the obligatory "burglar-proof", on Tobago most people did not even lock their doors. I have visited T&T many times over the years, both with my wife and also without her, I have made friends of my own outside of the immediate family on Trinidad and on Tobago. Over the years we have looked seriously into acquiring a little place of our own on Tobago and have gathered some knowledge of the "ins and outs" of this option. We have seen phases where land acquisition has been freely available to foreigners and when it has been prohibited/restricted. We have witnessed European females marrying local young men purely to circumvent land purchase restrictions.
I have been offered, on more than one occasion, plots of land to build on which have dubious deeds of title and I know that houses have been built on land "by arrangement". What I mean by that is the land is made available to the incoming foreigner who proceeds to build and enjoy his "holiday home" but does not necessarily hold title to the land, he may have just arranged a lease or some other private agreement with either the land owner or even someone who knows the land owner and has appointed himself as a kind of custodian of that plot with or without the owners knowledge/consent.Without going into the absolute minutia of these various arrangements I believe it is safe to say that there are many very unorthodox tenures currently in place on Tobago. I believe there are a significant number of local people in Tobago who, probably with justification, feel they have been dispossessed of land they felt an entitlement to. The law of adverse possession is responsible for widespread land disputes in T&T, in 1976 land on the idyllic Tobago had a value that people would not be prepared to kill for but 2015 land values are a whole different ball game.
Peter Green had started a new build before buying a completed property in Bacolet Crescent, Peter Taut and the German couple also murdered all lived in the immediate vicinity of the Green's house. Richard Wheeler was in the process of assisting Peter Green sell his land (Title of which was in dispute between Peter Green and the party he had purchased it from).
My contention is that "the link" is land, all seven murder victims and the two attack survivors have been European (Grace excepted), long-term visitors to Tobago who subsequently acquired property, at least three properties were in Bacolet Crescent (I do not know where the Green's first plot is, maybe also in Bacolet). Are all the properties in Bacolet on land which was all part of the same estate? I believe the link between these heinous crimes is to be found in the validity of the various land deals involved.
The killers would simply identify three hapless petty criminals to whom they would immediately pass on the Wheeler's credit cards, giving the Police an easy catch. When the PM comes out and says a link is possible and then is immediately rebuked by senior Policeman Williams who says he can see no link whatsoever, and in fact anyone with an ounce of common sense can see a clear link then without a doubt Tobago has a major problem here.
The financial impact of widespread land deed irregularities on the economy and for those who have facilitated such deals would be enormous, there is potentially an awful lot riding on the Police's ability to perpetuate the belief that "robbery is the motive" when in these cases there does not seem to have been much in the way of robbery at all.
Please do not doubt the likelihood of widespread land fraud/dispute on Tobago, this is the Island which allowed the financial clout of a major hotel in Store bay to acquire publicly-owned road, land and beach in the face of widespread local opposition.
The World is being consumed by greed,Tobago is no exception. People from all over the world are no longer content to come and enjoy Tobago, they want to own it.Gradually, as more of the Island is owned by foreigners, it ceases to be the Tobago they fell in love with. The local people succumb to the values of rampant consumerism and the traditional morals and principles which set Tobagonians apart are constantly eroded and rapidly disappearing.Rest assured that there are big business interests that would like nothing better than to build secure compound hotels like they have in Jamaica and DR, if that happens then the financial benefits of tourism would "trickle down" even less than they do now. If the violence continues then Tobago will be turned into a miniature Dominican Republic - how tragic.

Source: T&T media, UK media, personal experience of Tobago

Richard & Grace Wheeler Murder Case - Page 2

John, thank you so much for such detailed post and as a former journalist, I knew my gut was right. I did not and I do not believe robbery was a motive, particularly due to the gruesome of the crime. All these couples were attacked, beaten, and viciously murdered with revenge and unexplained anger. This is not what you see in a typical robbery case.

This part of your post caught my attention:

There is a clear link between all these couples and I believe the victims knew who were the killers. It seems to me that the police force is just trying to get someone behind bars and we still have a few killers on the loose. I agree 100% with your post analysis.

Richard & Grace Wheeler Murder Case Trinidad & Tobago / Caribbean - Page 2

Name: John
Country:

Title: Richard and Grace Wheeler

Comments: Further to my comment above, I have left out a crucial point about the link.
The Wheeler's injuries included "blunt instrument trauma", so they were chopped but finished off with what is most likely a ball & peon hammer. What would be interesting to find out is if any of the other victims suffered similar injuries?

Source: T&T media, TTPS press conference