Crime
TCI Residents Outraged at Coroner’s Inquest into Marie Kuhnla’s 2018 Murder
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, June 16, 2022 – “A case that even a child could see through” is how some Turks and Caicos Islanders are describing the case of Marie Kuhnla, a tourist found dead on the property of Club Med in 2018.
Kuhnla’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Club Med and a former employee of the company Frank Yacullo jr this year leading international news organizations to pick up the case again. Since then the treatment of the case has become increasingly bizarre and Islanders are taking notice.
Islanders took to social media with questions about the incident after a never before seen lab report was revealed in a late stage coroner’s inquest.
“I can’t fathom how they can even argue on this case…This is so disappointing from our Royal Turks and Caicos Police Force…” one said.
Marie was found on the Club Med property in 2018, the TCI coroner said she appeared to have been strangled, her underwear was on inside out and she had been beaten. Now medical reports prove seminal fluid was found in the victim’s underwear.
After testimony in the issue has ended a decision will be made by the seven jurors in the case. This decision – handed down this week – was to determine whether Marie’s death is considered a homicide or not.
The jury upheld the medical examiner’s findings that Kuhnla, 61, died due to manual strangulation.
Garfield Ekon
Staff Writer
USA, September 21, 2024 – Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has been charged with serious sex offenses from a 14-page indictment, accusing him of racketeering, sex trafficking by force and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Mr. Combs, 54, was arrested on Monday evening, with allegations of running a criminal enterprise from at least 2008 that relied on drugs and violence to force women to “fulfill his sexual desires”, according to prosecutors. A New York federal judge remanded the musician in custody on Tuesday after prosecutors argued he was a “serious flight risk”.
If convicted on all three counts, the rapper and record producer faces a sentence of 15 years up to life in prison. Asked by US Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky how he wished to plead, Mr. Combs stood up and said: “not guilty”.
According to court documents, Mr. Combs “wielded the power” of his status to “lure female victims, to engage in extended sex acts” called “Freak Offs”. During Freak Offs, Combs distributed a variety of controlled substances to victims, in part to keep the victims “obedient and compliant,” the indictment said.
In a news briefing, US prosecutor Damian Williams said officials found firearms, ammunition and more than 1,000 bottles of lubricant during raids on Mr. Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles, about six months ago. Mr. Williams said federal agents also found three semi-automatic rifles with defaced serial numbers, and a drum magazine.
He told reporters that further charges were possible, without offering details.
Mr. Agnifilo, the musician’s lawyer, maintained, “there’s no coercion and no crime.”
“He’s not afraid of the charges,” he said, adding that he believed Mr. Combs was the target of “an unjust prosecution”.
In court documents, federal prosecutors said that Mr. Combs had “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct”.
Prosecutors accuse Mr. Combs of “creating a criminal enterprise” whose members – under his direction – engaged in sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson and bribery.
“On numerous occasions”, the documents said, Mr. Combs assaulted women by “striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them”.
The indictment did not specify how many women were alleged victims.
It also does not accuse Mr. Combs himself of engaging directly in unwanted sexual acts with women.
Last November, his ex-girlfriend, singer Casandra Elizabeth Ventura, filed a civil lawsuit against him that included graphic descriptions of violent abuse.
Sean “Diddy” Combs denied the accusations, but settled the case a day after it was filed.
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