The scene after Alrae Ramsey's (inset left) body was found on Tuesday. Blair John’s (inset right) body was recovered yesterday.
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
AS Italian officials downplay the possibility of foul play in the deaths of two Bahamians, the men’s mothers find it difficult to believe their deaths could have been accidental.
The women spoke to The Tribune yesterday as officials scramble to piece together the mystery of how two men with promising prospects died.
Firefighters retrieved the remains of diplomat Alrae Ramsey, 29, from the Po River in Turin, Italy, on Tuesday. Blair John’s corpse was recovered yesterday from the same river.
Cathleen Rahming, 52, John’s mother, said: “It’s difficult to believe it was an accident because of what my person on the ground said they saw when they went to look at my son. They were very guarded, they were very careful about what they told me because they wanted to protect me. But my son is very, very fit. He’s a strong swimmer and I know him well enough to know that no, he had no reason to go out this way.”
Ms Rahming’s daughter travelled from London to Turin on represent the family.
However, Turin’s police chief, Giuseppi de Matheis found it difficult to believe the men were victims of crime.
“Given the seriousness of the situation,” he said, “the outcome of the autopsy is crucial, therefore it will be carried out as soon as possible. Currently, it can be ruled out that apparent injuries may have been the cause of death. If (the autopsy) does not clarify the doubts on the death dynamic, the Italian police team in charge of the case will examine phone records, credit cards and debit card records.”
Ramsey, a foreign service officer on study leave in Vienna, was reportedly in Turin on a break. He and his friend, John, were staying at a bed and breakfast establishment at Via la Loggia 2 in Turin.
John, a 28-year-old Saint Mary’s University graduate student, was there to attend a psychology conference.
“What happened was it was a competition that started with speeches and information on psychology and after winning the competition he went to Italy to represent the university to present his research and findings in psychology,” his mother said.
John, however, never presented his research last week Friday as was expected.
“He attended day one of the conference which was Thursday but he didn’t show up on Friday or Saturday and his whole purpose was for that,” Ms Rahming said.
John had spent two days in London visiting his sister before travelling to Italy. His mother discovered something was wrong last week when Ramsey’s mother called her.
“Alrae’s mom called me asking whether or not I had heard from Blair,” she said. “We knew they would be together and it was very out of character for them not to keep in touch with their moms in particular, especially when they’re travelling so that was a red flag.”
Ms Rahming’s last communication with her son was last week Wednesday at 5.11am. “He texted me to let me know he was waiting on the train to go into Turin. I told him, ‘I plead the blood of Jesus over you, I pray that God gives you great success in your endeavours and I love you my son.’
“He was home for the Christmas holidays,” she said. “He was looking forward to the day when he would officially become a doctor. I remember him saying this a long time being in school, ‘I can’t wait to be finished with this.’ In fact, he was very excited about going on this trip because he did a countdown. ‘Monday I have x amount of days, y amount of days,’ he would say.”
John was the oldest of his mother’s three children.
“My son was a very loving, a very, very focused, a very aggressive, a very affectionate, magnetic person who only wanted to do good and eventually come back home and do good for his country. That was his plan. He studied psychology for more than one reason, one of the main reasons was he realised the importance of getting into the mind so he wanted to be in a position where he could improve people mentally because most things begin in the mind and then trickle down to the other areas so he was very concerned about the way the human being functioned mentally. He was done with all his classes. His sister was studying in London and he went there. He then went to Rome and took photos. He was doing selfies and sending them to me from the different landmarks.”
Ms Rahming said she has relatives in Italy trying to uncover what happened.
“I’m really not looking forward to anything, not excited about even knowing what happened but I want to know as much details about what may have happened as possible,” she said. “I need that. Not just for my son but for anybody who may even be travelling in that area, they need to know what is going on so we can send out a clarion sound for Bahamians or even people of colour to be careful going in that area. Two ideas I have in my head are robbery or their colour or maybe even to get their documents to travel because their bags are still missing.”
For her part, Anita Ramsey, Alrae Ramsey’s mother, said she is trying to piece together what happened as well. “I don’t know for sure but I’m working with the government to see what happened,” she said. “Everybody who knows my son knows he was a gem. He was a people’s person and educated. Obviously something went amiss because he’s not a boy to get involved with anything untoward. The minister came to my house, the permanent secretary came to my house, they’re all working with me.”
In the House of Assembly yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister Darren Henfield said Ramsey had been employed at the ministry since December 9, 2013. He was posted at the Bahamas Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as the third secretary/vice-consul in 2016-2017.
“Then, last year, he was granted an in-service award to pursue a one-year postgraduate diploma programme in diplomacy/international relations and languages at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in Austria for the period September 2018 - June 2019,” he said.
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 5 months ago
Let's hope these two young Bahamians, with their travel ties to Port-au-Prince, Montreal and Turin, were not in anyway connected with the nefarious trafficing activities of one of the leading organized crime syndicates based in Montreal. Dumping beat-up corpses in rivers without bothering to weigh them down is a very characteristic way for mafiosa families to send a clear message to others who might be thinking about crossing them. If these deaths somehow involved a mafiosa family in Montreal or Turin, the Italian police in Turin will want the deaths swept under the rug as quickly as possible because they too are known to have close ties to several of the major mafiosa families. I hope I'm not right about any of this, but there are too many dots here that can be all too easily connected for the worse.
licks2 5 years, 5 months ago
The mafia is Sicily not Turin. . .
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 5 months ago
Don't be so ignorant. Obviously you've never heard of the Great Gretzky of criminal organizations - Alphonso Caruana. Although Alphonso was put behind bars in Italy by a Turin Judge, his crime family remains alive and well in both Montreal and Turin.
joeblow 5 years, 5 months ago
Obviously nothing suspicious here, with an apparent cover up by Italian police, right?
CatIslandBoy 5 years, 5 months ago
Well_mudda_take_sic is a profound idiot who writes a bunch of non-sensical garbage, adding nothing to the conversation. What a bunch of "Croc" .
bogart 5 years, 5 months ago
WEEEELLLLL...!!!!! .....WEEELLL...MONKEY ONCLE....!!!!!!!......IN DA ENTIRE WORLD...... 195 COUNTRIES......TWO MALE BAHAMIANS......FROM ONE COUNTRY..BAHAMAS......BOTH MALE DARK COMPLEXIONS BAHAMIANS.....TRAVEL TO ONE COUNTRY.....ITALY.....VERY VERY...SAME COUNTRY.....ITALY.....DA SAME TWO SMART BAHAMIANS.......GONE TO. VERY VERY.SAME CITY......TURIN.....STAY AT VERY VERY.SAME RESIDENCE UNDER DA VERY VERY SAME ROOF................FOUND ......DEAD...IN VERY VERY SAME RIVER.....SAME RIVER.......RIVER....NOT...ONE BUSH.... BUSH...NOT DIFFERENT ROAD......NOT PUBLIC SQUARE.......ROAD.................BUT.BUT BUT......VERY VERY VERY SAME RIVER............FOUND.....BY FINDERS.....VERY VERY SAME WEEK.........VERY VERY SAME SHORT DAYS TIME SPAN...... DEAD WITHIN HOURS...???....MINUTES...???.........AN CALLING IT ...ACCIDENT...?????????................SUMMONS DA ITALIAN AMBASSADOR ......PRONTO...TO EXPLAIN.......UNTIMELY.....UNEXPECTED... BOTH ...DEMISE OF BAHAMAS CITIZENS ILLUSTRIOUS SONS.......!!!!!!!!
Clamshell 5 years, 5 months ago
Your thoughts might come across more clearly if you refrained from writing in Morse code. And all-capital letters, which is impolite and referred to on the internet as SHOUTING. Respectfully meant ... thank you.
bogart 5 years, 5 months ago
Thanks...appreciates ya observation. AS.....it is AT TIMES....some of us aint bin dat learned....EDUCATED.....some is plain sputterin.....uneducated..handicapped...following da ...format..AN AN ....AN.......not elegant.....Please.....ignore .yinna on ya talkplace....if you are offended.....please ignore.....yinna...SHOUTING....will be tryin to give up dis bad an know da role in da corner......sit still an know weself..thanks....APPRECIATE YA...concern..
Bert 5 years, 5 months ago
I knew these men. They worked for me durring their undergraduate days. They were both brilliant individuals who in my judgment were not capable of nefarious "mafia" involvment. The idea is ludicrous. They had everything to live for and their trajectory in life was exceptional. They had no need to be involved in crime. This reeks of robery and murder. So sad.
Clamshell 5 years, 5 months ago
Mr. Bogart, If your goal is to be ignored, you are on the right path.
HAVE ... A NNNICCE .... DAYYY ... YINNAAA ... ??? ... !!!
bogart 5 years, 5 months ago
THANKS for jeering me... I likes to look up to y'all..erry last one.....some actually perfectly educated....poised......some not...impediments......an we pore ghetto uneducated downtrodden, wretched.......
birdiestrachan 5 years, 5 months ago
The fact that they were both found in a river. Is suspicious, It is not a consident
concernedcitizen 5 years, 5 months ago
Could it be lovers quarrel , or one jumping in to commit suicide and the other jumping in to try to rescue him and both drowning ,, be interesting to know the current and rocks in the river
HereHere47 5 years, 5 months ago
No, idiot
concernedcitizen 5 years, 5 months ago
Thanks for calling me a name , right now its just speculation . Notice my first sentence said it could be . You have no more proof of what happened then I do . It could be a number of things . Do you always go right to name calling and insults during a discussion ??
BahamaRed 5 years, 5 months ago
Careful with your speculations...they are deleting comments that even suggest this may be motivated by homosexuality.
bogart 5 years, 5 months ago
COMMENTS.....are usually placed as SOCRATIC Irony to bring out responses ...to continue and to find out da learned aint dat learned....the responses certify. Agreed wid ya that there are these speculations diversion from tragic sad heart story.
OldFort2012 5 years, 5 months ago
This article and the subsequent comments are a microcosm of everything that is wrong with the Bahamas. First you have a "journalist" writing a headline of such stupidity. What a mother, 5,000 miles away from an event that tragically killed her son, "believes" in her heart-break moments is of course totally subjective, completely irrelevant and can bear no relation to reality. While we should all sympathise with her grief, we should be aware that no sense can come out of her mouth at this moment. So, why report it? Complete lack of professional standards. As in everything else that happens in the Bahamas. Everyone is a self-appointed something: the preacher is a bishop, the hack who can't write two sentences in English is a journalist. Bahamian professional standards in a nutshell.
Then you get to see the comments and they are such inane bullshit that they show the state of mind of the population. A collection of sub standard IQs prone to conspiracy theories with about as much logic to them as a 3 year old could muster. Only logical advice a father could give his sons is to run away from here as quickly and early as possible. An early death in the Po is preferable to a life here.
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 5 months ago
Has literally ZERO to do with "the Bahamas".
Interviewing relatives friends family members is a common practice worldwide. With the aim being to find out IF they know what could have happened. I doubt the reporter asked the mother if she could solve the case. She reported what the mother said. Also common practice.
As to the general populace, It is a human thing to ask "Why", no amount of wealth or education will change that. If someone in old fort bay disappeared under mysterious circumstances, youd be right to the 2acre wall or the country club Sunday tea talking to your neighbour about what "could" have happened.
Literally nobody with blood running through their veins says "not talking about it until the coroner's report comes out". That's disingenuous.
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 5 months ago
To OldFort2012: I think we can now safely assume you don't actually live in the wealthier Old Fort gated community. If you did, you would have the financial means to take action consistent with your anti-everything Bahamas sentiment and move to another country to live. But what do we Bahamians know. Perhaps you've borrowed enough from your local bankers to be owned by them and therefore must stay planted in a country with people that you obviously have great disdain for. LMAO
John 5 years, 5 months ago
Whatever happened with the guy that was found (apparently) beaten to death on someone’s lawn? What is the history behind that murder and was anyone ever arrested?
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 5 months ago
Ahh...read?
"POLICE are still awaiting the results of a toxicology report as rumours persist over the mysterious death of British national Dannie Lea."
"Superintendent Joy Bosfield told The Tribune an autopsy revealed his cause of death was from complications related to heart failure."
John 5 years, 5 months ago
Read further where it says there were bruises on the body
John 5 years, 5 months ago
The comments on this post and ones subsequent confirms every Bahamian male is an endangered species. The enemy is about to kill and destroy.
concernedcitizen 5 years, 5 months ago
In the vast majority of cases its us killing us..and no John I do not believe it is a CIA plot whenever someone guns down someone in Nassau over drugs ,gangs or someone get roach .If the U S wanted the Bahamas all they would have to do is stop their citizens visiting , like Cuba .In a year we would be building rafts and hope the wind and current took us to the U S
John 5 years, 5 months ago
So if you don’t believe it’s a CIA plot then why did you mention it? You prolly one of dem dutty agents.
concernedcitizen 5 years, 5 months ago
Hmm more proof of the dunning kruger effect
John 5 years, 5 months ago
Whatever happened to the Lyforf Cay resident who killed her husband? Is she still running wild and FREE? Or has she been returned to Fox Hill?
concernedcitizen 5 years, 5 months ago
The dunning kruger effect is real . lol
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 5 months ago
It's indeed unfortunate many younger Bahamians today know little about the very seedy circles within which Fweddy 'Kruger' Mitchell has always lived under cover of night. I know I wouldn't want any of my sons any where near Fweddy Boy. LMAO
Clamshell 5 years, 5 months ago
Ah ... Dunning-Kruger Effect ... a theory that is proved correct daily on the internet, and on discussion boards like this one.
concernedcitizen 5 years, 5 months ago
Yes it is
Well_mudda_take_sic 5 years, 5 months ago
No one in the Bahamas has ever had more of a mental superiority complex than Fweddy Boy....he's the consummate pseudo-intellect! Fweddy Boy still thinks he's God's gift to the Bahamian people and, as such, is destined to one day become PM of the Bahamas. Those who know him well laugh heartily behind his back. ROWL
EasternGate 5 years, 4 months ago
This affair goes deeper than you think. The Italian Police were crafting a narrative to suit their motives and having little interest to investigate the deaths. The cause of death is described as drowning....the unanswered question is "who drowned them"? This is murder of our brothers and the F...king Italians know it. Why are these Cocksuckers covering up murders? I'm convinced that race was a factor!
concernedcitizen 5 years, 4 months ago
And your crafting a narrative to fit your bias .You have no more factual knowledge of what happened then the man in the moon .The investigation and autopsies are on going .The Italian police have not released there findings yet !!
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