Mother of Dead Teen May Be Charged

GOA, India, March 11, 2008 — -- 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.

Proof of Age?

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."

Leaving Teenager Alone

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.

Local press and bloggers have questioned the decision to leave the 15-year-old behind with a man, and various reports have labeled MacKeown as crazy, irresponsible and naive.

"I know that people are criticizing me for that, but I tried to make Scarlett come with us," she told the Independent newspaper. "We had fights about it."

After her daughter's death, MacKeown read Keeling's diary and discovered that she had been having a sexual relationship with Lobo, the family spokesperson said.

Vacation in 'Hippie Paradise'

Until recently, all of MacKeown's children were home-schooled or in liberal academic programs, which allowed them to travel for an extended period.

The family chose Goa, known as a "hippie paradise," because MacKeown's boyfriend had been there previously.

The area has a familiar feel to the family's lifestyle in England, where they grow organic fruits and vegetables, live off the electricity grid and get their water from a well. It was the first overseas trip for the children.

But that comfort was shattered Feb. 18, when MacKeown received a text message reportedly from Lobo from Keeling's phone, asking her to call, and she was informed of her daughter's death.

She returned to Goa and said she found it difficult to believe that Keeling could have drowned.

"I convinced myself that she drowned," she said, but added that she believed the only way drowning could have occurred was if her daughter had been drugged.

Witnesses say they saw Keeling leave a bar with a man around 2 a.m. the day she died, and several locals told MacKeown about rumors that Keeling was murdered.

Then MacKeown took a walk along the beach where her daughter was last seen alive, and she found a sandal belonging to the teenager. After searching nearby, she found more of her daughter's clothing and began to suspect that foul play had led to the death.

Her fears were confirmed when MacKeown viewed her daughter's dead body and noted the extreme difference between the coroner's report, which she said only listed five bruises, and the more than 50 bruises she counted on the body.

After losing faith in the authorities' intention to investigate her daughter's death, MacKeown released autopsy photographs to prove that she had been raped and murdered.

MacKeown said she has coped with Keeling's death by forcing police to reopen the case. With that accomplished, she will be left with the devastation of losing a daughter she describes as "loving and affectionate."

For the time being, police are holding Keeling's passport, which means that the body cannot be transferred to England to be buried until the passport is returned to the family.

MacKeown said that she tried to deliver a formal letter to the minister's office requesting the return of the passport and personal effects, including the teenager's diary and clothing, but the letter was returned.

For now, MacKeown will have to wait before giving her daughter a proper burial in their English hometown.

"I want to go home and bury my daughter and perhaps I'll come back and see the case out," she said. "I'll wait and see what happens in the next few days," she said.

Reuters contributed to this report.