After more than ten years of stalled progress, the investigation into the 2013 custody death of Chakadan Daniel has seen a major breakthrough. Key exhibits once believed to be lost have been recovered and are now slated for DNA analysis, according to Police Commissioner Verne Garde.
Daniel’s death, ruled an unlawful killing by an inquest, has long remained one of Saint Lucia’s most controversial custody cases, with calls for accountability echoing for over a decade. Commissioner Garde said his office had pushed to revisit the file, which revealed troubling gaps in evidence handling.
“The investigator for that matter was… on vacation. I reassigned the investigator again to a more senior person and they went over the file,” Garde explained. He said reports indicated that “the primary evidence was not available and it was missing. In fact, the initial report on the missing evidence went back as far as 2018-2019.”
A formal probe into the missing exhibits began in May 2023, but initial searches of the exhibit room proved fruitless. According to the Commissioner, persistence paid off:
“That search culminated in the first instance where the exhibit was still not found. And then a subsequent search was done of the area and we retrieved the said exhibits.”
The recovered items have since been sent to a forensic laboratory for testing.
Garde confirmed that “non-intimate samples of several of the police officers who worked at the station during that period” have been collected for cross-referencing against the exhibits.
The Commissioner emphasised the importance of clarity and accountability: “We want to be sure of exactly what transpired in that station on that day. Because the police in every station has a duty of care. So we have to be very cautious when somebody dies in our custody. We have to understand what caused the death.”
The development marks the most significant step in years toward resolving the Daniel case, rekindling hopes that the long-awaited promises of justice and closure may finally be realized.
