Ex-Senator Neilon Franklyn is not the first person to have died in Grenada from consuming a drink that had a heavy concentration of the deadly Ethanol substance.
According to two senior retired police officers, the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF) had investigated such cases in the past but never laid charges against anyone in connection with the resulting deaths.
One officer recalled the case of a local coming from either Trinidad or Venezuela and died along the way after consuming a drink that had Ethanol.
“We have had some instances where some fellahs once drank ethanol for rum and whiskey and died,” he added.
According to the ex-high ranking member of the Police Force, Ethanol is known to be a very highly poisonous substance and Brazil makes Ethanol from sugar cane and experimented with using it as a substitute for gasoline to put in vehicles to drive them.
He noted that persons who engage in making contraband high-end drinks like Whiskey and Henesey will use ethanol to manufacture it.
He said in the case of the ex-Grenada Senator, police investigators have their work cut out to get at the bottom of the case to rule out suicide and to treat it like murder.
He made the statement against the backdrop of a report submitted by the Department of Chemistry at the Mona Campus in Jamaica of the University of the West Indies (UWI) which indicated that it had detected a high concentration of Ethanol in the stomach of Franklyn.
The report seen by THE NEW TODAY noted that the stomach area was covered 90% with Ethanol, his blood also contained 83% of the deadly Polyethylene Glycol, as well as 90% Ethanol and 99% Paracetamol.
The ex-CID Chief stated that the Police officers charged with investigating the case will have to engage in the type of probe to determine what really happened to Franklyn.
“…. I’m saying if it’s not suicide, it’s not (an) accidental death. You have to investigate all those things – you have to look at those areas,” he said.
The former CID boss pointed out that as part of the detailed investigation, the Police will have to cover all possible angles including a revisit to the place where the ex-Senator was known to be drinking the night before he died.
“Go back there – check the drinks, check the source where the drinks come from and see what you can get. You go back by the place where he was drinking – see where the drinks come from – you have to trace that.”
Asked if it could be an accidental death, the ex-Crime Chief said: “All I know it was poison. The mechanics of the death is that he consumed that (Ethanol) and he died but what is the motive, what is the reasoning behind his death – how did it came about?”
He told THE NEW TODAY that these are the questions the RGPF need to find answers for in order to assist them in their investigations.
The ex-high ranking member of RGPF would like to see his former colleagues do everything possible to reach a conclusion on the case of the 27-year old Franklyn who died at the General Hospital on August 24, 2025.
One of the key findings in the autopsy conducted by the experienced Trinidad & Tobago Pathologist Professor Hubert Daisley is that Franklyn had a swollen brain and that all his major organs had shut down due to the ingestion of the ethanol substance.
Professor Daisley also stated in the autopsy that Franklyn had a congested liver and acute renal failure of the Kidney.