Police update on Chellen case |27 August 2014

In a statement released yesterday afternoon and a subsequent meeting with the local press, the police have provided an update on what the Mauritian press has now called the ‘Chellen case’.

The body of Harmon Chellen, a Mauritian national and director of the Mauritius Tourism Academy, was found floating in the l’Islette channel off Port Glaud in the afternoon of Monday August 18, some hours before he was due to leave the country following an official mission.

The police yesterday confirmed that the first autopsy performed at the Seychelles Hospital three days later revealed that Mr Chellen had died of “asphyxia, pulmonary edema, being consistent of drowning”.

The police have also confirmed that the investigation is ongoing just as they thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding all unnatural deaths.

However, various questions have been raised, not only around this particular incident but also because it has developed into a tale of two cases. Though it may be assumed that the deceased had gone bathing, family sources suggest this to be unbelievable as their loved one did not know how to swim and was allergic to salty water.

Moreover, his shirt and shoes seem to have mysteriously disappeared and he still had his trousers and socks on when his body was found.

The second case derives from a complaint made to the Port Glaud police station on the same morning by a female Malagasy employee of the Ephelia Resort where Mr Chellen was staying, alleging that she had been sexually assaulted by the latter in his hotel room at 7pm the previous evening.

Before being found dead in the afternoon, Mr Chellen had in the morning been taken for questioning by police to the Port Glaud police station.

According to the police, while he had been cautioned and asked to wait in the enquiry office pending his transfer to the Central Police Station for detention, he walked out unnoticed. Even after a subsequent search, he was not found before the macabre discovery.

Accepting this last incident as a human error, the police have gone on to explain that due to the investigation simultaneously being carried out on scene at the Ephelia Resort and involving some police officers, only one had remained at the station.

They have also confirmed that Mr Chellen would have not been permitted to leave the country on the same day as he had planned.

Contrary to rumours going around, it has also been confirmed that the complainant had not previously reported being sexually assaulted by other individuals.

Meanwhile, the police have suggested that at this stage no evidence links the two cases and no foul play is suspected, contrary to speculations published in the Mauritian press, on social media or by at least one non-governmental organisation (NGO) on the sister island. This despite an article of the daily ‘Le Mauricien’ suggesting that a second autopsy done in Mauritius has revealed head injuries.

The police have promised to disseminate further information as the investigations continue.

Meanwhile, they are appealing to members of the public who may have any relevant information to contact the emergency centre on number 999 or the alternative anonymous line of 133.