MURDER probes are supposed to end with arrests. However, there are murders that do remain unsolved. They continue to prick the imagination and some, over the years, have slowly faded away into the deepest recesses of our minds. Over the past 15 years a number of unsolved murders happened in the Suva and Lami areas. They mean killers are either walking our streets freely, or have moved on abroad. In some cases, time has lapsed and there has been no new evidence obtained by police to charge anyone in connection with the crimes. The killers have evaded the “long arms of the law” and are living a free life, if still alive, obviously without any guilt. Police yesterday said it was difficult to solve these cases but they believe there could be someone out there with some vital information to break them. Today, The Fiji Times delves into the past to relook at murder cases that have remained unsolved, including one dating back to the late 1970s.
SOME people have been jailed for life by the court for the heinous crime of murder and some acquitted.
A few have walked out of corrections facilities after successfully appealing against their conviction in court.
But some people are walking around freely although they committed the crime, as there are a few murder cases in police records which are unsolved.
Police spokesman Inspector Atunaisa Sokomuri yesterday said that information was lacking to solve some murder cases.
“It’s really hard to break into these cases,” he said.
A little over a decade ago, four people were shot at point blank range inside a fish factory at Wailada in Lami.
Police were alerted on August 22, 2003 when the bodies of three Asian men and an iTaukei man were found inside, all shot in the head.
One of the Asian men was the only child in his family, under China’s One Child Policy then, and the 25th generation in his family line.
And a few years later, there were shockwaves when a woman was found dead metres away from her home in Toorak, Suva.
The burnt body of Prabha Wati, 58, of Brewster St in Toorak was found about 20 metres away from her home at about 2am on October 23, 2009.
On the front page of October 24, 2009, we reported that a post-mortem showed Ms Wati died of suffocation because of strangulation.
A security officer who was on duty at a temple on Brewster St that night had told this newspaper then what he saw and how he discovered Ms Wati’s body.
The security officer had stated seeing a truck driving away and then said he saw light some distance away and he went to investigate.
“About six feet from where I was standing, I saw something was burning in the cassava patch. I checked my watch, it was 2am.
“I went closer and couldn’t make out what it was so I went around it and that was when I saw the lady’s legs.
“I knew instantly it was an Indian woman’s legs because they were so small,” the security officer had said.
Ms Wati’s body was reportedly burnt from the waist to the head.
And in September 2014, police officers were alerted to the discovery of a 12-year-old girl’s body in her house in Samabula, Suva.
Police later revealed that they were treating the girl’s death as a case of murder.
In January last year, a prominent businessman was found dead in his office at Laucala Beach, outside Suva City.
While a man was questioned by police for almost one week in connection with Holland Seeto’s death, no one has been charged yet for the murder.
Insp Sokomuri confirmed yesterday that these murders in the Suva and Lami areas were yet to be solved by police.
“There is nothing in the Wailada murders, the Prabha Wati case, the 12-year-old Chinese girl and Holland Seeto’s murders,” he said.
“We haven’t received any new information on these cases so far but some people would definitely know something that could be vital information.
“The files are still there and we haven’t closed them.
“People who may have any bit of information in relation to these murders should call Crimestoppers or contact their nearest police station or community post.”
Insp Sokomuri said people with information can also go to the Criminal Investigations Department headquarters in Toorak, Suva.
On the possibility that people with information could be withholding it because of the fear of getting into problems with the suspects, he said, “They will always remain anonymous if they give any information”.
“It will be something only between the informants and the police as far as any information that could help police break these cases is concerned,” said Insp Sokomuri.
Apart from the Wailada, Toorak, Samabula and Laucala Beach murders, one particular cold case is that of the gruesome murder of expatriate, Phyllis Ada Furnivall. Ms Furnivall, 41, was the principal of Lelean Memorial School and according to wikitree, she died in Fiji on December 10, 1970.
A police officer, now retired, who went to the scene said he got emotional when he saw the foreigner lying in a pool of blood with stab wounds on her body.
Ponipate Lesavua was a police detective after having joined the Fiji Police Force a few years earlier when he was tasked with other officers to retrieve the body from the scene.
During the investigations then, a senior police officer also went to Australia to interview a school teacher who had migrated after Ms Furnivall’s murder.
But there was nothing to connect that person to the expatriate’s death and so far the case remains unsolved.
Mr Lesavua had said in an earlier interview that Ms Furnivall’s murder was the only case unsolved in his career as a police officer.
He said the case being still unsolved bothered him because he was part of the team of police officers that started the initial investigations.
While these murders remain unsolved, the family members of the victims continue to wait for a breakthrough in their respective cases.
In the case of the iTaukei man who was shot to death at Wailada, he had left his village in Wailevu, Cakaudrove, Vanua Levu a few years before the tragedy and he had not returned there in between.
His death had shocked his family and the villagers, as no one had any idea where he was employed when living in Suva.
And in the case of the Chinese national who was also shot in Wailada, his death ended his family lineage, leaving his parents depressed.
In an earlier interview, his parents had stated their intention of returning to China although their only child’s grave was in Fiji.
They had lost hope after losing their only child, more so when no one had been charged in connection with the murders during their stay here for more than 10 years after the incident.
A check later revealed that they had closed their restaurant in the heart of Suva City and had most probably returned to China.
While police await solid information to help them break the unsolved cases, the families of the deceased are also no doubt waiting for that day when suspects are charged by police and dealt with by the court.
Until police receive any solid information on the four cases since 2003, they are likely to remain unsolved for some time.
