A British ex-pat and an American tourist have been brutally murdered on separate Caribbean beaches in less than a week.
A man armed with a cutlass hacked each woman to death, it has been reported, and now police have warned tourists not to wander onto deserted beaches.
Rose Wyatt, a former care worker from Berkshire, was brutally murdered as she walked her dog on the island of Dominica on January 17.
Just seven days later, American tourist Dr Jessica Colker, 39, was raped and murdered as she went for a walk along the shoreline on Grenada.
Jessica Colker with her husband Brian Melito (Picture: British News)
Rose, 51, from Reading, moved to the Caribbean last year with her husband Gary Wyatt.
Tragically, she never came back home after taking their dog for a walk near the beach near where they lived in Calibishie, Dominica.
When she didn’t arrive back, Gary went to look for her.
His son said: ‘He heard their dog barking off in the distance and stumbled across her body at the bottom of the path.
‘She had been killed by a person using some kind of machete.’
Jessica kicked off her shoes before going on her walk (Picture: Wessex News)
Her death has chilling similarities to Jessica’s murder on Jan 24th.
The anesthesiologist from Atlanta, Georgia, was found dead in a mangrove swamp near the La Sagesse beach resort in Grenada where she and her husband Brian Melito were staying.
They had checked in less than 24 hours earlier and were attacked as they walked along a hidden, deserted beach half a mile from where other tourists were sunbathing.
Police say she was raped and killed by a man armed with a cutlass but her husband managed to get away and ran to raise the alarm.
David Benjamin, 26, has been remanded in custody charged with murdering Jessica, who died of extensive skull fracture and asphyxia according to a post mortem report.
The alleged killer, nicknamed locally as ‘Giant’ and ‘Shuttle’ – lives in a shack with his father ten minutes’ walk from La Sagesse beach. His police mugshot shows teardrop tattoos under his left eye.
The Royal Grenada Police force said he had only been released from prison a month ago after being jailed for nine years for raping a 14-year-old schoolgirl.
In Dominica, police said a 17-year-old was arrested and charged with Rose’s murder and remains in custody.
Soufriere, Dominica (Picture: Alamy)
British holiday-maker Sue Hardy, 63, was on the beach in Grenada around the time Jessica was attacked.
She said: ‘It appears the American woman tourist – described as ‘very beautiful’ by one member of the staff I spoke to – had gone off for a stroll along the beach with her husband, who I gather is grey-haired, distinguished-looking and quite a bit older than her.
‘About half an hour after the first hue and cry went up, we heard this horrible shouting and crying from the hotel,’ she said.
‘It was a man’s voice but it was a sort of terrible animal-like wailing and sobbing.’
Foreign Office advice to British tourists says they should be relatively safe in the Caribbean if they follow commonsense steps such as not going out at night into dimly-lit streets where they might be robbed.
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