A REVIEW of the infamous Monica Reece case has found that there was an “unprofessional” investigation on the part of ranks of the police force, who were unable to solve the 23-year-old murderThis is according to Commissioner of Police (ag) David Ramnarine who told a press conference on Friday that the review of the cold case “clearly indicated that an unprofessional course of action was taken in that year and that period when that matter was under investigation.”

Those who had investigated the murder are no longer serving members of the police force. Meanwhile, police sources are optimistic that the case can be solved since it was recently re-opened by Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum.

“The evidence is alive,” one senior police source noted. The Reece case is perhaps the most sensational of the cold cases, following reports that there were aspects of the crime which were not properly probed by investigators back in April 1993, when she was killed and her body dumped on Main Street, Georgetown.

On April 9, 1993, the body of 19-year-old Reece, who was a security guard, was discovered on Main Street. The autopsy report by forensic pathologist Dr Leslie Mootoo had established that Reece had suffered a savage beating, which left her with a broken jaw and other injuries, before she was unceremoniously dumped in Main Street.

The autopsy also showed that she had had sexual intercourse some hours before she was slain. Dr Mootoo had also collected pubic and other hair samples from Reece’s remains. These, and samples from the pick-ups police had impounded, were reportedly sent overseas.

Several weeks after she was killed, Reece’s body was exhumed and more samples taken. These, too, were reportedly sent overseas. The results, according to police, were all “inconclusive,” leaving detectives no closer to catching the killer.

Reports had revealed that a 22-year-old Tiger Bay resident claimed to have seen when the killer dumped Reece’s body from his vehicle. Another report made by an eyewitness had claimed that around 22:05hrs on the day in question, she was walking along the Avenue of the Republic when she saw a dark-coloured 4×4 vehicle going north along Main Street.

One of the right doors was ajar and the foot of a passenger was protruding from the vehicle. When the pickup reached the area near Geddes Grant Limited, she saw someone fall out of the vehicle. The woman then went to the scene where she saw Reece’s body.

Meanwhile, on April 13, 1993, four days after Reece’s murder, detectives, acting on the woman’s information, detained a 27-year-old man from a prominent family. They also impounded a 4×4 pickup that was owned by the suspect’s father.

Denying knowledge of the crime, the youth told detectives that he had used his vehicle on Good Friday night and returned home around 19:30hrs, accompanied by his girlfriend.

According to the suspect, he did not leave home again that night until shortly after 22:00hrs, when some friends of his went to his home and said that a woman had been thrown from a vehicle and someone said that the vehicle registration was similar to his. He had also denied ever knowing Monica Reece. Further, on April 15, 1993, the son of a prominent businessman was detained and a pickup owned by the family impounded.

His alibi was that he was at the Georgetown home of an attorney between 19:00hrs and 22:00hrs on the Good Friday night of Reece’s murder. According to him, he visited his girlfriend in Kitty around 22:30hrs and returned home around 23:30hrs.

Detectives showed him a photograph of Reece and he too said that he did not know her and had learnt of her demise only after reading the newspapers.