MEMBERS OF hotel staff accused of being involved in the murder of Michaela Harte were in her room to steal a purse containing money and jewellery when they were disturbed by her, police in Mauritius said yesterday.
At a morning press conference they also said two of the three Mauritian men charged in connection with the murder of Ms Harte have admitted participating in the events that surrounded her death.
Commissioner of police Dhun Iswar Rampersad, flanked by Supt Yoosoof Soopun, recounted what floor manager Sandip Mooneea (41) and cleaner Raj Theekoy (33) said in evidence to the police.
The two men have been provisionally charged with murder and conspiracy to murder respectively. The third murder accused, Avinash Treebhoowoon (29) of Plaines des Roches, has not yet confessed to any involvement in the murder of Ms Harte.
Ms Harte was murdered last Monday after she went to her room at the exclusive five-star Legends Hotel. She was on honeymoon with her husband, former Co Down footballer John McAreavey.
“It looks like they went in the room a couple of minutes before the victim arrived. The accused were there to commit larceny. From what I understand the couple left a purse with money and jewellery on a table for a couple of days.
“It seems that this attracted the attention of some staff working there,” he said.
It has been reported that police believe Mr Treebhoowoon had noticed the valuables and after approaching Mr Mooneea they decided to hatch a plan to steal the jewellery and money.
According to the police, when Ms Harte disturbed the men they panicked and forcibly put her in the bathtub where she was held down by the neck by Mr Mooneea and by the ankles by Mr Treebhoowoon. She was found by her husband sometime later. Postmortem results revealed she died from asphyxiation.
The police commissioner went on to say that Mr Theekoy explained to them that he saw Mr Treebhoowoon coming out of the Ms Harte’s room sweating and agitated.
“Treebhoowoon told him not to say anything about it. Now the investigators are trying to match what he [Theekoy] is saying with the timing of the events,” he said.
In relation to the claims by Mr Treebhoowoon in court on Wednesday that he was tortured while in police custody, the police commissioner dismissed the accusations as “a normal thing for them to do”.
According to the police all three men will remain in custody until Tuesday next when they will appear in court. “We will then ask the magistrate to extend it [their remand] until our inquiry is over,” he said.
A reconstruction of the crime took place at the Legends Hotel yesterday afternoon.