U.K. Teen Was Drugged, Raped, Left to Die

Mumbai, India_March 12, 2008 -- A second man has been arrested in the case of a British teenager who was drugged, raped and left on a beach to die while vacationing in Goa, India, police said today.

The half-dressed body of 15-year-old Scarlette Keeling was found on Anjuna Beach in the popular Indian tourist area on February 18.

Initially police said the teenager drowned, but Keeling's mother, Fiona MacKeown, insisted that the girl had been raped and murdered. At the request of the family, a second autopsy was conducted last weekend and concluded that the death was "homicidal in nature."

"A prime suspect, Placido Carvalho, who was arrested on Wednesday night, has confirmed that he gave her drugs, raped her and left her on the beach. As the girl remained unconscious, she died during the high tide," a senior police officer heading up the investigation told The Times of India newspaper.

Carvalho gave himself up voluntarily and was booked on murder charges. Both he and Samson D'souza — arrested two days ago — have allegedly confessed to raping the 15-year-old a few hours before her body was found. The men said Keeling consumed alcohol, cocaine and ecstasy the night of her death, the newspaper reported.

Despite the confessions, MacKeown continued to push for a more extensive investigation into her daughter's murder. She has been very critical of the police's handling of the investigation, particularly the initial decision to rule the death an accident, which India's tourism minister said was evidence of a police cover-up.

"The arrest of two low-level persons, to my mind, is certainly not a completion of the investigations." said MacKeown in a statement released through her lawyer, Vikram Varma.

"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," MacKeown told ABC News earlier this week.