By Deandrea Hamilton

Editor

#TurksandCaicos, May 17, 2022 – Royal TCI Police investigative techniques are again being called into question, this time it is the sister of Denise Buck, UK citizen and Grand Turk resident who as on January 3, 2022 murdered at her home who points to serious flaws and a sloppy probe.

“Clearly, probably they’ve never retrieved the phone and they haven’t found the murder weapon. So it’s probably in the creek, isn’t it, at the bottom?  That’s where I’d dumped it if I was a perpetrator of such crime and what they have done, I couldn’t tell you to be honest with you.”

Nearly five months since the killing of Buck, 60 years old, who was bludgeoned with a hammer, and there has been little communication and very little progress in the investigation.  There has also been no reward money offered for information in the crime.

Older sister, Lesley Campbell, a teacher still living in the UK explained even the notion of a reward being offered for information in the crime was snubbed, initially.

“I asked for a reward, before they agreed to doing it.  They said that they wouldn’t because people would talk because they want the money.  I said, but you want them to talk don’t you and you don’t give them the money until someone’s convicted.”

The appointed Family Liaison Officer informed Mrs. Campbell that there would be a reward offered in the matter; however, at no time has a reward for information in the case been shared with the public.  It sadly is just as Buck’s sister had feared.

Have phone records been checked?   How did the killer access the house? Why didn’t the killer take the money? Why didn’t Denise run and fight for her life?  Why didn’t 9-11 recognize the call was from Grand Turk and why wasn’t the call recorded, Campbell said she was told the recording feature was broken.

In recanting one of the conversations she has had with police, there was this:  “So you must have his voice then.  Can you not get some of Denise’s friends or people to listen to his voice, maybe someone will recognize it.  Guess what, the recording machine was not working!”

The questions from Buck’s family are many, and we are told they have been shared with family liaison officers, the Governor and the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office.  Still there has been little movement in the case, to the satisfaction of the family, no updates this month and no arrests.

“I have never learned what time the police actually got up to my sister’s house, nobody has ever told us that.”

There have been reports, which the police “categorically deny” which reveal that the attacker heartlessly called 911, using Denise Buck’s phone.  It was redacted in a report to the family, but initially Lesley says they were told the man told the operator they could come and get Denise because he was done murdering her.

Royal TCI Police also came under fire for the extreme delay between getting that call and responding to it in person.  An investigation into what transpired had been launched, however, there has been no findings published in the matter of the delayed response to the distress call.

It is also expressed by Buck’s sister that people in Grand Turk also know the killer and at one point, the relatives were contacted for a payoff for information; Lesley Campbell told us that she reported the attempt at blackmail.  That probe too has gotten little traction.

Lesley Campbell described her sister as brilliant, in love with the island of Grand Turk, though a bit too trusting and a woman who was working hard, enjoying her life as an islander.  Her thoughts are that Denise was “as tough as old boots” and believes Ms. Buck was caught off guard because she knew her attacker.

Lesley has vowed she will not give up on justice for Denise.

“I’ve not been able to have any kind of closure or be able to put anything to rest because I am that sort of person. I guess I can sort of park it somewhere and let other things cloud in… but all I want, I’d like the police to do a bit of work and find the murderer because I can’t imagine on a small island like Grand Turk, that somebody doesn’t know who it is, in fact I know that somebody does know.”