The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

THE police yesterday confirmed that the disappearance of 72-year-old Anthony “Tony” Hepburn is still a missing person case and has not been reclassified as a murder.

The question arose after a media reports claimed investigators now believe Mr Hepburn, who has been missing at sea for weeks, was intentionally killed.

But Assistant Superintendent Anthony Ferguson dismissed the report.

“We’re investigating a missing person,” he said.

Central Detective Unit chief Paul Rolle also told The Tribune he heard nothing about the case being reclassified, adding that there are no new leads to report.

On May 5, Mr Hepburn, who had planned to photograph nesting birds at Goulding Cay, disappeared from Clifton Bay.

Two hours after a couple of men working near the dock on Jaws Beach claim to have seen a man in a kayak on the water, a woman walking her dog says she saw a yellow kayak up on the beach in Clifton Heritage Park near Jaws Beach. She placed the time at around 10am.

But the kayak again disappeared from the beach. It was next discovered early Monday morning by Mr Hepburn’s son-in-law, Gian Pinosch, in a cave near Blackbeard’s Steps, further down the coast near Clifton Pier.

Mr Pinosch said he was searching for his father-in-law on the beach at about 7.30am Monday. The Defence Force was already out patrolling the area.

Mr Pinosch cruised down the coastline when on passing the wide-mouthed cave near Blackbeard’s steps he saw a suspicious object deep inside. He reversed his boat, jumped overboard and waded into the cave.

Way in the back, he said, in the cave’s second large chamber the kayak was spotted upside down. It was pulled out and the surrounding area thoroughly searched. Nothing was found.

Beginning where he was last seen, The Tribune understands that Royal Bahamas Defence Force officials ran several simulations of tide and wind direction to determine where Mr Hepburn would most likely have been found.

According to the results of those tests, the fact that the kayak was discovered on the southwestern side of New Providence is not unusual.