They failed to mention that the suspect had turned himself in. They failed to explain how this development affected the manslaughter charges brought against four other young boys for the death of Jake Grant. And the Press were barred from the court in Freeport when the suspect was arraigned on Wednesday.
The scarcity of reliable information on this historic case sparked a series of grisly rumours, which swept through Bahamian communities like wildfire, damaging the reputations of several people in the process.
The mystery of what happened to the five missing boys has been a difficult case to crack. But, despite the lack of official communication, there were some clues. Freeport-based forensic expert Gregory Swann, for instance, compiled an extensive criminal profile on the kind of individual likely responsible for the abductions.
In an exclusive interview with the Nassau Guardian almost two months ago, Dr. Swann described the perpetrator as a "a well-groomed mature Bahamian man with significant links to the community … someone who would have a level of acceptability… between the ages of 35 to 45, with average to above average intelligence and of average build and complexion."
Dr. Swann and a colleague, Pamula Mills, a clinical psychologist with the Ministry of Education, had jointly proposed to police a way to lure and trap the killer. This could have resulted in an earlier apprehension, some say.
Dr. Swann, a Bahamian, has been a police forensic psychologist for more than 18 years, working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies in the United States. In 1996, he was the lead psychologist on the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta.
In his interview with the Guardian in August, Dr. Swann suggested a probable cause for the killer's behaviour:
"I believe the trigger had something to do with employment matters. It might have been some major change in employment," and the criminal was "someone who functions well in the community. Someone who works in an occupation that has public recognition."
Though undoubtedly a psychopath, Dr. Swann said the killer would be easily recognisable in his profession and through community participation. A psychopath is an individual who is able to commit violent crimes repeatedly, with no sense of remorse.
He identified a "sexual identity issue"" as a secondary trigger, suggesting the man could have had a relationship problem that caused him to snap and feel the need to dominate others. Such
individuals, he said, use life stresses as a motive to justify releasing their pent-up rage.
Dr. Swann has worked with police on Grand Bahama since the third boy went missing in late May. He was one of those who established the Civilian Command Centre headed by Reverend Peter Pinder on Grand Bahama.
The boys who vanished — and who are now presumed dead — are Jake Grant, 12, on May 9; Mackinson Colas, 12, on May 16; Deangelo McKenzie, 13, on May 27; Junior Reme, 11, on July 30, and Desmond Rolle, 14, on Sept. 28.
Dr. Swann pointed to several common links in the disappearances. In all five, the boys worked as bag packers at the Winn Dixie Foodstore in downtown Freeport. They all were from single-parent homes and of a similar age and intellectual capacity. And they all had similar social interests, including video games and basketball.
"We are looking for an acculturated person," he told The Guardian in August, explaining that the criminal would have lived in Grand Bahama for a long time and was familiar with Bahamian society.
"This is probably a person who has been struggling with a sexual identity crisis for some time," Dr. Swann said, adding that the A Bahamian cultural and religious environment would make it difficult for him to express himself sexually.
"This person was probably also in a relationship or attempted a relationship with a woman, which was really only superficial. It was only a means of trying to minimise or normalise the perception of him."
Dr. Swann discounted the idea that there was a lull in the two-month period between the disappearance of the fourth and fifth boys.
He suggested that the killer could have been stalking his next victim.
Profiling attempts to establish patterns and commonalities that add up to clues about the perpetrator of a crime.
"There is an analysis system that is used by the FBI that helps to determine, based on elements of individual events, how the events link themselves to each other," Dr. Swann said. "That helps you to understand what kind of person would have been involved."
By Jimenita Swain, The Nassau Guardian
