The Tribune

By SYANN THOMPSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

sthompson@tribunemedia.net

THE father of one of two men who died mysteriously in an Italian river claims one of the men had a blow to the head. 

Randolph John, father of Blair John, said his family plans to hire a lawyer to assist them with uncovering the mystery surrounding his son’s and Alrae Ramsey’s deaths.

“Alrae had a blow to his head, Italian police still can’t give us answers on how that happened,” Mr John told this newspaper yesterday. “All we want is answers of what really happen to our boys. When all this was happening and my daughter went to Italy to find out about Blair, the treatment was absolutely poor, they treated her and her friends like criminals.”

The bodies of Ramsey, 29, and John, 28, were found in the Po River in Turin, Italy on June 4 and 5 respectively. Italian officials said that the cause of death was an accidental drowning, but the families of the young men have been rejecting this explanation.

Insisting that the case was prejudiced, Mr John said that both men were well educated and well-travelled, with a promising future ahead of them. But he believes that the case was not properly handled because the John and Ramsey are black Bahamians.

“If this was two Italians who were killed in the Bahamas, the government would be scurrying to do damage control. Because these boys were black, it seems these Italians don’t care. If they had another nationality or different race this may have been treated differently. And even after all this, you would think that the government would issue a travel advisory to other Bahamians traveling to Italy. These weren’t any kind of men off the street, they were hard-working. My son never had anything handed to him, he was always pushing to get an education and to do his best,” he said.

In seeking answers for his relatives, Mr John says they will never see their boys again, but they want justice for their sons. Six months after the death of the two men, Mr John says the family is still awaiting a toxicology report and a detailed death certificate.

The Bahamas government has launched an independent investigation into the matter by engaging a law firm in Italy. Attorney General Carl Bethel previously told the media that Bahamian officials have communication with Italian authorities and made a formal international request for assistance in obtaining the reports and their findings on the mysterious deaths.

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. The men both attended the same high school, Saint Augustine’s College in New Providence.