The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

WITH no answer yet as to the cause of the house fire that led to the deaths of six relatives five months ago, Central Grand Bahama MP Neko Grant yesterday questioned why the incident has yet to be classified by officials.

The tragedy, which saw a two-year-old girl, her mother and four other adults perish in the four-room house at Homestead Avenue, prompted the victims’ loved ones to raise concerns over whether foul play was involved.

However, Assistant Commissioner of Police Anthony Ferguson told The Tribune last week that police had no reason to believe an arsonist was at work. He said the matter was considered a house fire.

The case files are in the process of preparation for transfer to the Coroner.

Mr Grant suggested that authorities had little to say because there was an attempt to suppress last year’s murder statistics. He urged officials to classify the deaths in an effort to bring closure to family members.

“Some months ago,” Mr Grant said, “six persons perished in a house fire here on the island of New Providence. Have their deaths been classified? If not, when will they be classified?

“Mr Speaker, we are not talking about one or two persons, we are talking about six human beings. As a result we have scores of family members involved. When will they be allowed to put closure to this chapter in their lives? If they were not murdered, how and why did they perish?

“Were they left to be unclassified so as to suppress the murder count for 2013? The Bahamian people deserve to know and await an official response.”

In the early hours of Monday, September 23, 2013, the victims - 52-year-old Marilyn Barrett; Unissa Pratt, 23; 22-year-old Jennifer Bisphaint and her daughter Joashinique King, 2; Trayvon Grant, 16, and Melchizedek Bain were unable to exit the house after trying to escape through both the front and back doors.

They were all found huddled and severely burned in the bathroom of the house. Authorities said the window had burglar bars.

A neighbour later said that he attempted to assist them in breaking free. The bodies of all the victims, except for the toddler, were cremated ahead of a memorial and funeral service several weeks later.