Vaughn Fubler,Sherene Henry murdered in their bed in Jamaica
Police investigating the slaying of a Bermudian man and his girlfriend in Jamaica said last night they are no closer to establishing the motive for the brutal murders.
Vaughn Fubler, 56, of Devonshire, and Jamaican Sherene Henry, 32, were apparently asleep when they were killed. Mr. Fubler had been shot in the neck and Ms. Henry had been shot multiple times in the back.
Mr. Fubler split his time between Bermuda and Jamaica and had bought a piece of land in the north of the island. He moved back there earlier this month to continue building a house on the plot.
Sometime between Sunday night and the early hours of Monday morning, a gunman or gunmen broke into the unfinished home and killed the pair, police believe. The slaying has detectives mystified, partly because it happened in a quiet, isolated area far from the country's crime hotspots. In addition, Mr. Fubler and his girlfriend were not known to the police and were said by locals to be a quiet, law-abiding couple.
Deputy Inspector Robert White said: "We are still trying to ascertain what could be the motive behind this. We find it very strange and unusual that this kind of incident happened where it did. It is a very quiet, very isolated area. It is only partly developed, with most of the houses still being built."
He continued: "Mr. Fubler was not known to me or to my officers. I understand people in the area knew him, personally, and there has never been any reason for us to be worried about him."
The bodies were discovered at 10am Monday by the contractor of the building site, who had gone to find Mr. Fubler after failing to raise him on the telephone. The contractor found the two bodies, face down, side by side, police said.
The murders happened in the district of St. Mary, a few miles from the resort of Ochos Rios. A former fishing village, Ochos Rios has become one of the country's top tourist areas and is frequented by celebrities and cruise ship crowds. Eyewitnesses have told police that the murdered couple had been wandering hand in hand on the exclusive James Bond beach just hours before they were killed.
The private beach - owned by the famous Goldeneye Hotel where Ian Fleming was a long-term guest - is five miles north of the murder scene. Police spokeswoman Angella McTaggart said: "We know that they went swimming because a bag was found at the house full of wet towels and costumes. We are still trying to piece together their final moments. They seemed like a normal couple, doing normal things."
She continued: "We are still collecting statements from other residents in the area. People are shocked because it is normally a quiet place." Ms McTaggart said that a murder weapon had not been found and that other clues were scarce. However, Mr. Fubler's white Toyota car, which was parked outside the house, had been broken into.
Ms McTaggart said: "One possibility is that these people [the murderers] were looking for something. We had a report of Mr. Fubler's car being broken into once before, around three or four months ago. There is a possibility they did not find what they were looking for and they came back."
With 1,300 murders in 2006, Jamaica has one of the world's highest violent crime rates, ranking alongside South Africa and Colombia. Police stress that the vast majority of the killings are gang related and happen far from the tourist resorts.
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