A retired senior police officer has expressed grave disappointment over the manner in which the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) investigated two major cases on the island – one involving the death of ex-Senator Neilon Franklyn and the other an alleged murder of a British national whose parents are Grenadians.
Speaking to THE NEW TODAY on Thursday, the ex-cop who is experienced in investigation at the level of the Criminal Investigation (CID) said that the police needed to do much more work in the Franklyn case before sending it over to the acting Chief Magistrate Francine Foster who has since ordered a Coroner’s Inquest into the suspicious death.
Top Trinidad & Tobago Pathologist Professor Hubert Daisley concluded after carrying out an investigation that Franklyn who died in August 2025 had consumed an anti-freeze poisonous substance.
According to the retired Cop, he does not believe that the police investigators did sufficient work on the Franklyn case before sending it over to the Chief Magistrate for the Coroner’s Inquiry to be conducted.
“Actually, it’s a farce,” he said.
The top cop said that during the period in office of former Chief Magistrate Patricia Mark, police investigation was of a much higher quality and the cases used to go straight into Preliminary Inquiry and as such there was no need for a Coroner’s Inquest.
He said that the then Chief Magistrate would ask the Police if they noticed anything suspicious and any unanswered questions about the death she would call for the assistance of the Forensic Pathologist.
He felt that the police investigation should have been “more prolonged and in depth as many questions would have been asked of the cop by Mark before any case reached the level of a Coroner’s Inquest.
The top cop also said that Mark never waited on the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Commissioner of Police but preferred to “do her thing for herself” before any Coroner’s Inquest is conducted.
He feared that if the family of Franklyn retained “a competent lawyer” he could bring up a number of issues in the Inquiry that can call for further investigation by RGPF in the case.
“The standard has dropped tremendously in our legal system,” he quipped.
The retired cop said that in his personal opinion, the evidence gathered points at Franklyn being “poisoned” but he will not put it down to a murder being committed.
However, he stated that the onus is on police investigators to “get to the grounds where the poison came from or was obtained” as part of a proper and thorough probe into the matter.
“It is a long time now that the Police have that laissez-faire attitude towards their job,” he remarked.
According to the former high-ranking Police Officer, the mere fact that a Coroner’s Inquest has been ordered it means the Police have not completed the investigation into the Franklyn matter but has literally “reached a stalemate and the Inquiry is being done to determine the cause of death and whether it was “accidental, a case of suicide or whatever – that is what they are doing.”
He said the Police are now looking to the Acting Chief Magistrate who will be presiding over the proceedings to help them ascertain the cause of death.
“They are doing the Coroner’s Inquest now (to) let the Cross section of the Public and the Coroner determine if it needs to be escalated to a murder or what not – that’s what they are doing,” he added.
On the Lance Aux Epines case involving Andrew Frederick whose body was discovered in January at a house in the well-to-do Lance Aux Epines area in the south of the island, the top cop said he had picked up information from “the inside” of RGPF that the police are not doing anything further on the case.
Professor Daisley, who was retained by the family, found that the 47-year old man was tortured and concluded that his death was a homicide.
The retired senior cop said he has formed the opinion that the lawmen have “concluded that Frederick did it for himself” and that he had vomited blood after inflicting wounds on himself.
However, Professor Daisley’s report indicated that Frederick did not vomit and that he asphyxiated on his own blood coming from the injuries over his eyes.
The former Police Officer said the evidence indicates that the marks found on the body could not have been self-inflicted.
The family members have also expressed frustration over their attempts to get the British government to assist in the alleged homicide in Grenada.