The original article can be found in: Trinidad Express By Carolyn Kissoon
UNITED States pathologist Dr James Gill is awaiting crucial documents to continue his review of two autopsies on Stacy Ramdeen, who died after police executed a search warrant at her Caroni home in November 2012.
And Gill has not been contacted by officials at the Ministry of Justice on the case, according to Dr Valery Alexandrov, pathologist at the Forensic Science Centre in Federation Park.
Alexandrov said he spoke with Gill about the case on the weekend.
“I asked him about the Stacy Ramdeen case, and Dr Gill said he was still awaiting very important information. He said no one has been in contact with him, and he cannot continue without that information,” he said.
Gill was hired by the State to conduct a review of the two autopsies in December.
The Ministry of Justice had stated that Gill was hired after “an extensive search and discussions” with four separate forensic pathologists to do the review as a third autopsy would not “necessarily adequately resolve the central issue in the case”.
Ramdeen, 32, died during a police raid at her home in Ibis Gardens, Caroni.Following her death, two autopsies were performed by pathologists Dr Hughvon Des Vignes and Prof Herbert Daisley after her family questioned the circumstances surrounding her death.
Police had claimed Ramdeen, a mother of three, collapsed and died after swallowing a quantity of cocaine when officers went to her home in search of drugs.
However, her family denied this. The first autopsy by Des Vignes concluded there was no cocaine in Ramdeen’s system and she died from chronic heart disease.
The second, performed by Daisley, who was privately hired by Ramdeen’s family, stated she died as a result of asphyxiation due to manual strangulation.
The Police Complaints Authority has appealed to acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) Stephen Williams, seeking information on the case.
Ramdeen’s husband, Evans Petamber, was awaiting the results of Gill’s review before burying his wife. Ramdeen was eventually laid to rest seven weeks after she died.
