The Tribune

THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday that the government is working with funeral homes in Italy and Nassau to have the bodies of two men found dead in a river in Turin returned home as quickly as possible.

In a statement yesterday, the ministry said The Bahamas’ foreign service officer in Turin is now in receipt of the death certificates and passports of Alrae Ramsey and Blair John.

“The ministry is at present working assiduously with the funeral homes in Turin and Nassau to have the bodies repatriated to the Bahamas as quickly as possible, so that they can be turned over to their family members. The ministry will provide further updates as soon as additional information becomes available,” the statement said.

The bodies of Ramsey, 29, and John, 28, were found in the Po River in Turin on June 4 and 5 respectively. According to some Italian news outlets, results of the autopsies conducted last week state drowning as the cause of death.

John’s father Randolph John, 56, does not believe the men died by drowning, added that if the men indeed drowned, it meant that they were “incapacitated” before being tossed in the river.

Mr John said on Tuesday: “If I was born three times again I wouldn’t accept that (the autopsy results). If it was in fact a drowning then it means that they were incapacitated prior to being thrown in the river. That’s what it would mean.”

Shortly after the men’s bodies were found, John’s mother Cathleen Rahming told The Tribune that he was a strong swimmer and fit. 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.