Not since the double murder of two Austrian aristocrats in Bimini has the Bahamas received so much international media attention as in the last several days, police say.
In the wake of the mysterious death of the 20-year-old son of former playboy playmate and millionaire heiress, Anna Nicole Smith, assistant police commissioner Ferguson said that calls from mainly US based media outlets have been coming in to police “all through the day.”
“There has been quite a bit of interest generated – I don’t know exactly why, but there has been,” he said.
“All through the day they’ve been calling for updates and other things of that nature – they want to know what the cause of death is and all that sort of stuff.”
Since the death of 20-yearold Daniel Wayne Smith on Sunday, British, US and European newspapers and television stations have been seeking information – both from their bases abroad and by flying to Nassau to meet with police and attend press conferences.
At a conference held at Doctor’s Hospital, where Smith was visiting when he died, more than 15 US media outlets were present, including representantives from the well known entertainment channel E! News.
Elsewhere in the world, People Magazine, and newspapers as far away as the Guardian and Times in the UK, and including the Ottawa Citizen and Winnipeg Sun in Canada, and Detroit, Seattle, Louisville, San Francisco and New York based US newspapers have covered the story.
A representative of a Swedish newspaper also appeared at the offices of The Tribune on Monday having flown in as soon as he could to find out more about the incident.
At press time the results of an autopsy on the 20-year-old’s body were pending.
By ALISON LOWE, The Tribune
