Crime Documentary - The Michaela McAreavey story
- 7 years ago
Viewer discretion is advised. Some may find this content disturbing. This is a documentary I found interesting.
Michaela McAreavey née Harte (31 December 1983 – 10 January 2011), while on her honeymoon in Mauritius, was found strangled in the bath of her hotel room. The daughter of Tyrone's multiple All-Ireland Senior Football Championship-winning Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte, her death and subsequent events prompted continuing widespread international media coverage.
It was the first murder of a tourist in Mauritius; the Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam expresses his sympathy to the Harte and McAreavey families. Two hotel workers who were accused of her murder have been tried and declared not-guilty by the Supreme Court of Mauritius, they were acquitted on 12 July 2012.
On 10 January 2011, Michaela and her husband John had lunch at their hotel in Grand Gaube. After lunch, at about 2:44 p.m., she went to her room to fetch a Kit Kat to have with her tea. Investigators believe she was wrestled to the ground on entering her room and strangled. She was put into the bath and the water was turned on. Her body was discovered by her husband soon after.
Three male Mauritian employees of the hotel were later arrested for the murder: Avinash Treebhoowoon, Sandip Moneea and Raj Theekoy. They appeared in court in Mauritius on 12 January 2011. Treebhoowoon and Mooneea were charged with McAreavey's murder and Theekoy with conspiracy to murder. DNA tests were taken on the suspects. Dassen Narraien, and Seenarain Mungoo were arrested the following week and charged with aiding and abetting a crime. Narraien and Mungoo were both security officers at the hotel. Mungoo was released and had all charges against him dropped on 12 February 2011.
The trial of two hotel workers accused of murdering Michaela McAreavey began in Mauritius on 22 May 2012.
On 6 June 2012, John McAreavey said he was handcuffed by police officers and they examined his body for marks. He also saw one of the accused (Avinash Treebhoowoon) on two occasions within a number of minutes the day his wife died. McAreavey said that he had gone back to the hotel room looking for his wife when she failed to return to the restaurant after leaving him to get some biscuits from their room to eat with their cups of tea. He found her unconscious in the bath, with the tap running and laid her on the floor and then tried to revive her. The DNA test made by a forensic expert from England revealed that no DNA traces of the two men accused and the other two original suspects were found on Michaela McAreavey body and at the crime scene except the DNA of John McAreavey.
The Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT), in particular, faced severe criticism for its handling of the case and for claims by defendant Mr Treebhoowoon who alleges that police beat a confession out of him, he was subjected to three days of beatings by officers before he confessed that he strangled Michaela because she caught him and co-defendant Sandip Moneea stealing from her hotel room.
On 12 July 2012, the judge Prithviraj Fekna told the jurors not to worry about what ramifications any verdict may have on the reputation of Mauritius. He reminded the six men and three women that they were not politicians and it was not their job to protect the image of the country. You have been told that this will have an international ramification and will affect the image of Mauritius… this is not your role, Fekna said. You must not allow yourself to be influenced by this, you are not politicians, you have to base yourself on what has happened.
Avinash Treebhoowoon and Sandip Moneea were declared not-guilty by the nine member jury. In a statement released after the verdict, the McAreavey and Harte families said that following the endurance of "seven harrowing weeks of this trial" there were no words, which could "describe the sense of devastation and desolation now felt by both families". The case was originally listed to run for nine days but the verdict came in its eighth week. The jury had deliberated for two hours and returned a unanimous verdict.
Lawyers representing Avinash Treebhoowoon and Sandip Moneea called for all evidence in the case to be given to non-Mauritian investigators, describing Mauritius's MCIT as "incompetent".
Michaela McAreavey née Harte (31 December 1983 – 10 January 2011), while on her honeymoon in Mauritius, was found strangled in the bath of her hotel room. The daughter of Tyrone's multiple All-Ireland Senior Football Championship-winning Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte, her death and subsequent events prompted continuing widespread international media coverage.
It was the first murder of a tourist in Mauritius; the Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam expresses his sympathy to the Harte and McAreavey families. Two hotel workers who were accused of her murder have been tried and declared not-guilty by the Supreme Court of Mauritius, they were acquitted on 12 July 2012.
On 10 January 2011, Michaela and her husband John had lunch at their hotel in Grand Gaube. After lunch, at about 2:44 p.m., she went to her room to fetch a Kit Kat to have with her tea. Investigators believe she was wrestled to the ground on entering her room and strangled. She was put into the bath and the water was turned on. Her body was discovered by her husband soon after.
Three male Mauritian employees of the hotel were later arrested for the murder: Avinash Treebhoowoon, Sandip Moneea and Raj Theekoy. They appeared in court in Mauritius on 12 January 2011. Treebhoowoon and Mooneea were charged with McAreavey's murder and Theekoy with conspiracy to murder. DNA tests were taken on the suspects. Dassen Narraien, and Seenarain Mungoo were arrested the following week and charged with aiding and abetting a crime. Narraien and Mungoo were both security officers at the hotel. Mungoo was released and had all charges against him dropped on 12 February 2011.
The trial of two hotel workers accused of murdering Michaela McAreavey began in Mauritius on 22 May 2012.
On 6 June 2012, John McAreavey said he was handcuffed by police officers and they examined his body for marks. He also saw one of the accused (Avinash Treebhoowoon) on two occasions within a number of minutes the day his wife died. McAreavey said that he had gone back to the hotel room looking for his wife when she failed to return to the restaurant after leaving him to get some biscuits from their room to eat with their cups of tea. He found her unconscious in the bath, with the tap running and laid her on the floor and then tried to revive her. The DNA test made by a forensic expert from England revealed that no DNA traces of the two men accused and the other two original suspects were found on Michaela McAreavey body and at the crime scene except the DNA of John McAreavey.
The Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT), in particular, faced severe criticism for its handling of the case and for claims by defendant Mr Treebhoowoon who alleges that police beat a confession out of him, he was subjected to three days of beatings by officers before he confessed that he strangled Michaela because she caught him and co-defendant Sandip Moneea stealing from her hotel room.
On 12 July 2012, the judge Prithviraj Fekna told the jurors not to worry about what ramifications any verdict may have on the reputation of Mauritius. He reminded the six men and three women that they were not politicians and it was not their job to protect the image of the country. You have been told that this will have an international ramification and will affect the image of Mauritius… this is not your role, Fekna said. You must not allow yourself to be influenced by this, you are not politicians, you have to base yourself on what has happened.
Avinash Treebhoowoon and Sandip Moneea were declared not-guilty by the nine member jury. In a statement released after the verdict, the McAreavey and Harte families said that following the endurance of "seven harrowing weeks of this trial" there were no words, which could "describe the sense of devastation and desolation now felt by both families". The case was originally listed to run for nine days but the verdict came in its eighth week. The jury had deliberated for two hours and returned a unanimous verdict.
Lawyers representing Avinash Treebhoowoon and Sandip Moneea called for all evidence in the case to be given to non-Mauritian investigators, describing Mauritius's MCIT as "incompetent".