Mother of Dead Teen May Be Charged

GOA, India, March 11, 2008 &#151 -- The mother of a murdered British teenager has appealed to India's Prime Minister to help ensure that the the police investigate the case properly.

Fiona MacKeown, 43, of Devon, England, told ABC News that she asked that Dr. Mammohan Singh "do what he sees fit to clean up this mockery of an investigation."

MacKeown's 15-year-old daughter, Scarlett Keeling, was believed to have drowned last month on Anjuna Beach, but a second autopsy report concluded that the death was "homicidal in nature."

This weekend, police arrested Samson D'Souza, a 25-year-old man, on suspicion of involvement in the death.

Reports today suggest that a second man has been arrested in relation to Keeling's death.

On Monday, India's tourism minister said Indian police had deliberately covered up the murder of the teenager by first ruling the death a drowning.

"This is a clear case of murder and it has gone out of proportion because the police tried to cover it up," Francisco X. Pacheco, India's tourism minister, told Reuters.

But yesterday, the chief minister of Goa, Digambar Kamat, told the media that MacKeown, a mother of six, must make a statement to police and that she would likely be charged with negligence. According to MacKeown's lawyer, Vikram Varma, she was never informed directly of the potential charge.

MacKeown told ABC News that the charge was just a tactic to distract from the unacceptable police work.

"I would like the right person or people who murdered my daughter to be put in prison for a long long time and I would like the person who tried to cover up the crime to not just be suspended but be removed so that people can feel safe around here. One of the things is that people are too frightened to come to the police because the drug people and the police run this place," MacKeown said.

Police also announced yesterday that they were testing Keeling's body to determine her age, though the teenager's passport indicates she was 15 years old.

"We do not want to take any more chances, as tomorrow someone might say that Scarlett was not a teenager," Bosco Jorge, a senior police officer, told Reuters. "Once forensic experts have done their job, we will hand over her body to the family for burial."

Keeling's family protested the police action.

"They want to violate her body again without any reason," Varma told Reuters. "We have strongly protested and asked them not to carry out further tests as they have already done two autopsies."

Dakini Runningbear, a family spokesperson, also questioned the police decision.

"On one side under the child protection act they are claiming she (Fiona MacKeown) was negligent," Runningbear told ABC News. "But on the other side, they are doing invasive medical tests to prove she was 18 and not a child."

Keeling's partially naked and badly bruised body was found three weeks ago on Goa's popular Anjuna Beach. The initial coroner's report determined that the death was a drowning.

But MacKeown did not believe that her daughter — a strong swimmer and body boarder — could have drowned. She made a public push for a second autopsy, including releasing graphic photos of her daughter's battered body from the first autopsy, which were printed in the local press.

Police relented and performed another autopsy. The report, released Saturday night, revealed that little water was found in the girl's lungs and that her mouth was full of sand. It was determined that the death was "homicidal in nature."

The mother of nine children ranging in age from 5 to 19, MacKeown had been vacationing in India with her boyfriend and six of her children for the last several months.

At the time of Keeling's death, MacKeown and her family were in a neighboring state while the teenager remained in Goa under the care of a guide named Julio Lobo, who a family spokesperson said is 25 years old, and Lobo's aunt.