Murder in Paradise
Jim Morris
been covered in articles in the New York "Daily News"(one of which was on
the front page last Saturday, March 25th):
http://www.b-v-i.com/newslinks/
As a result of the "Daily News" front page article, "Dateline NBC" was
sending a producer to Tortola last weekend (CBS' "48 Hours" already has a
producer on Tortola). I have also been asked to give interviews to "Inside
Edition" and the "EXTRA" national television programs, but I am stalling
doing such until I am able to ascertain even more information about Ms.
McMillen's murder. There is also supposed to be an article coming out in
next week's issue of the "Globe" tabloid.
The Associated Press feature article(which moved on the AP national and
international wire services on March 9th, 2000)is included below as well.
Best,
Jim Morris
Los Angeles
(310)358-7348
Forwarded:
I am currently involved with trying to find out the truth in the murder of a
close friend (Ms. Lois Livingston McMillen) on the island of Tortola in the
British Virgin Islands (Caribbean). Such was the subject matter of an
article that appeared on the front page of the New York "Daily News"
newspaper from last Saturday (March 25th, 2000)and has also been the subject
matter of articles that have already moved on the Associated Press national
and international wire services. An article also appeared last week in the
Web version of "Newsweek" magazine. This "Newsweek" article(as well as
articles that have already appeared in the New York "Daily News", Hartford
"Courant", Richmond "Times Dispatch" and Charlottesville "Daily Progress"
newspapers)can be accessed via the following Web site:
http://www.b-v-i.com/newslinks/
As a result of the growing press and media attention, "Dateline NBC" and CBS
"48 Hours" have sent producers to Tortola to research the murder of Ms Lois
Livingston McMillen(who is a descendant of Mr. Livingston who had signed the
US Declaration of Independence). As Ms. McMillen was a dear friend of mine,
I have also been asked to partake in interviews by the "EXTRA" and "Inside
Edition" television programs(but I have stalled doing such until I receive
the affidavits of the four Americans arrested for the murder of Ms.
McMillen). "People Weekly" magazine also sent a senior reporter to Tortola
last weekend to research the murder of Ms. McMillen for an upcoming article.
Below, I include some of my speculative thought as to possible motive(if the
four men arrested are involved with Ms. McMillen's murder). I have also been
in touch (via email) with Professor Lawrence Kobilinsky(who is an forensic
expert based in New York) as he seems very interested in the forensic nature
of the McMillen murder case. Especially in the alleged shoeprint that was
found in Ms. McMillen's rental car. Professor Kobilinsky has mentioned that
the alleged shoeprint could possibly provide a direct match (in theory) as
shoes from the defendants have been seized.
Forwarded:
The following includes the latest Associated Press article which ran on the
AP national and international wire services on March 9th, 2000. Such is
about the brutal murder of my ex-girlfriend on the island of Tortola in the
British Virgin Islands as four Americans have been arrested for her murder
(two of the men are from New York, and two of the men are from Washington,
D.C.). I was still very close to Ms. McMillen (her parents mentioned to the
Hartford "Courant" newspaper reporter that I was a dear friend) as I am
trying to get to the bottom of what happened to her on the night of January
14th-15th, 2000.
Associated Press Article which Moved on the AP National and International
Wire Services on March 9th, 2000:
^Artist's slaying, arrests shock idyllic isles<
^By JAMES ANDERSON=
^Associated Press Writer=
ś ROAD TOWN, British Virgin Islands (AP) _ Amid the soothing ping of
yachts' masts, the discovery of the body of a U.S. artist along a
scenic, boulder-strewn shore stunned this corner of Caribbean paradise _a
place whose easy propriety draws thousands yearly to its cozy harbors.
ś Of only slight consolation to British Virgin islanders were the
arrests of four foreigners _ all American visitors _ hours after Lois
Livingston McMillen, 34, of Middlebury, Connecticut, was slain the night of
Jan. 14-15.
ś The men had been seen with her in the days before her drowning
death, and they face murder charges that could bring life in prison,
with possibility of parole.
ś "This kind of thing never happens here," said Ben Bischmann, 24, a
Chicago native who is a manager at Pusser's Soper's Hole, a West End
harborside pub popular with locals, sun-bronzed sailors and vacationers.
ś "This is a place where you leave the keys in your car and don't lock the
doors," Bischmann said. "You hitchhike if you need a ride home."
ś Michael Spicer, 36, a law student from Washington, D.C., and a
longtime neighbor of McMillen's on Tortola; his Tortola houseguests Evan
George, 22, a construction worker from Washington; investment banker William
Labrador, 36, of Southhampton, New York; and Alexander
Benedetto, 34, who works for a book publisher in New York City, all deny the
charges and deny being with McMillen the night she disappeared.
ś They are jailed at Her Majesty's Prison, a remote hilltop place that
boasts a panoramic view of the palm-fringed shores where they _ and the
deceased _ once partied.
ś A preliminary inquiry set for March 27 will determine whether the
case goes to trial. Until then, prosecutors won't present evidence in
the slaying, said senior crown counsel Terrence Williams.
ś If it is sent to the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, trial likely
won't occur before October when the court _ which serves several
countries_ has its next session here.
ś McMillen's death shocked many of the 14,000 residents of Tortola,
the most populated of the British Virgin Islands' 40-odd islands and
keys. The relatively crime-free archipelago is a scenic territory whose
population swells with thousands of sailors and vacationers and whose
British-based law system bars counsel from discussing evidence outside of
court.
ś The available documents _ as well as interviews with police and
residents _ revealed little motive for a slaying, alongside a web of
overlapping relationships between McMillen and the four men accused in
her death.
ś "It's really, really sad. I pray for her," said Sgt. Patrick
Harewood of the Royal British Islands Police Force as he looked at a
photo of the striking McMillen, gazing intently at the camera.
ś Remembered at a Feb. 12 Connecticut memorial as a painter,
philanthropist and ardent activist against domestic violence, by some
local accounts McMillen allowed few to get close to her _ but was
passionate in her beliefs and causes and liked to dress to the nines.
She had come to the family's Tortola villa often with her father,
Russell G. McMillen, retired chairman of a lock manufacturing company,
and her mother, Josephine. Spicer's family owned a home up the hill at
Long Bay and he had known the McMillens for about 15 years.
ś McMillen's body was found Jan. 15 by a pedestrian on the shore next to
Sir Frances Drake Highway near Tortola's West End. She was fully clothed
with "what appeared to be blood oozing from her ear," Chief Inspector Jacob
George said in an affidavit. Officers found "female accessories strewn from
the road to the sea and some blood stains," and George surmised she "had
been involved in a struggle."
ś A pathologist determined she had not been sexually assaulted.
ś Her rental vehicle was found nearby. In it, George stated, was a
shoeprint that police photographed, presumably to be used as evidence.
ś In an affidavit, Spicer stated that he and his friends saw McMillen the
night of Jan. 12 at Bomba's Surfside Shack, a popular north-cast bar, and
that McMillen gave the four a ride home early Jan. 13. The night of Jan. 13,
the four and McMillen went out for food and drinks at Pusser's. Labrador
walked home, and McMillen later drove the rest home, Spicer said.
ś "That was the last time I saw Lois," Spicer allegedly declared in a
separate statement to police. "Since all of us have been here, we've
been going out drinking a lot. ..."
ś McMillen was last believed seen the evening of Jan. 14 at the West
End waterfront bar of the Jolly Roger Inn, which sports pirate's flags
flapping in the breeze and a prized view of ray-strewn sunsets.
ś That night, Spicer said he and his houseguests went to Quito's
Gazebo, a low-key north-coast beach bar _ a half hour's drive from the
Jolly Roger _ where locals and visitors mix easily to reggae music. They
took a cab home about 2:30 a.m., then watched a movie, "Vertigo."
Labrador told police he went with other friends to an ATM machine, then
decided to stay home that night.
ś Hours after McMillen's body was discovered along Tortola's southwest
shore, police went to Spicer's home. They left, then returned and seized
clothing worn by the men the previous night.
ś "Michael Spicer admitted to having been wearing a blood-stained
shirt. He was not able to account for the blood," said a statement from Sgt.
George. It added that "there was blood on one pair" of three pairs of wet,
sandy shoes also seized.
ś Spicer and Evan George's attorney, Oscar Ramjeet, suggested that
forensic tests being conducted in Jamaica could benefit his client.
Benedetto's attorney, Paul Dennis, declined comment. Labrador attorney
Gerard Ferrara didn't immediately return telephone messages.
ś In another affidavit, Benedetto said he met McMillen in Tortola in
1997 and began a relationship with her. "The relationship ended amicably
after three months," said Benedetto, who said he works in a family book
publishing business.
ś Benedetto said he didn't see McMillen again until Jan. 12, at
Bomba's, where "we spoke for about an hour and she told me that she did not
like Tortola anymore and that the natives were treating her with aggression
and meanness."
ś At Bomba's, a ramshackle beach bar whose decor consists of wall
graffiti scrawled by hundreds of visitors and weathered panties and bras
donated by revelers and strung from the corrugated tin ceiling, McMillen was
remembered as a regular.
ś "I know Lois since she was 17 years old. I watched her grow up,"
said owner Bomba "Shack," an imposing 54-year-old. "I tell you what, she was
a girl who liked to dress. ... Everyone knew her as the girl who dressed all
the time."
ś A photo pinned to a wall shows Bomba standing next to McMillen,
wearing a purple sequinned dress and holding a tambourine.
ś "I'd be the guy she'd ask, will you tell these guys to leave me
alone," Bomba said. "She was quite popular but she wasn't a girl you
could talk sex to."
ś In his own Jan. 16 statement to police, Evan George stated that he
was unemployed, had had a relationship with Spicer for 2-1/2 years, and
lived in a Washington studio apartment owned by Spicer. "Michael is the
benefactor of a trust fund and he also plays the stock market," George
declared.
ś Meanwhile, the locals wait nervously. On islands dubbed "Nature's
Little Secrets," where drivers and pedestrians shout hellos in passing, they
don't want the sensationalism that can accompany U.S. trials to jeopardize a
tourism industry worth some dlrs 200 million last year and responsible for
about half the jobs.
ś And more importantly, many say: An adopted daughter is gone.
ś "She been missing here," Bomba said. "Really missing."
Subject: Some of My Additional (Speculative) Thought about the Murder of Ms.
McMillen (Sent in an Email to Joe Contreras with "Newsweek" magazine):
Dear Joe,
I have been thinking about it some more and still think that Lois' murder
has something to do with Spicer and George (and maybe even Benedetto). Did
you talk with Spicer's sister about him being bi-sexual because the senior
crown prosecutor (Terrence Williams) had mentioned that a gay/bi-sexual
leaning has been made known? Therefore, if Lois was pursuing something with
Spicer (although Lois' Mother denied such to me), Evan George might have
been driven into a "gay rage" based on jealousy.
Again, it is mentioned in the Associated Press article (that moved on the AP
national and international wire services) that Evan George had a two and a
half year relationship with Spicer and was living in an an apartment/condo
(in Washington, D.C.) which is owned by Spicer. Did Spicer live in that
apartment/condo with George? If so, such could indicate an even more serious
relationship which could help to bolster a possible "gay rage" (based on
jealousy) by Evan George if he saw Spicer and Lois getting together
romantically (if such was even happening). Keep in mind that Spicer may have
mentioned (like Benedetto has) that he had dating/romantic relations with
Lois. Again, such has to be corroborated especially if Spicer is indeed
bi-sexual.
Or did Lois confront Spicer about being gay with Evan George if Lois was
interested in pursuing a relationship with Spicer as they had been spending
time together? Keep in mind that Lois was approaching her mid-thirties and
was very much wanting to marry and have children (according to what she had
told me repeatedly). Perhaps she viewed Spicer as a "good catch" because of
his apparent wealth and assets. If she already had had something romantic
with him before which might have been rekindled during the most recent trip
(during which she was murdered), then a possible "gay rage" by George can't
be dismissed outright and should be investigated as well.
Beyond jealousy, Evan George may not have wanted his apparent cozy "kept
man" situation to be threatened by a possible more serious relationship
between Spicer and Lois. Again, I am very interested in what Spicer's sister
had to say if you have had an opportunity to talk with her. Keep in mind
that she appears to be "smoke screening" when she has said that there isn't
any evidence. If the alleged blood (on Spicer's clothing and shoes) comes
back as Lois' blood, such is indeed evidence!
Also, why did Labrador walk home on his own? Either Benedetto or Labrador
was a model (a percentage of gays in that industry exists), so the
gay/bi-sexual possibility has to be investigated. Benedetto has already
mentioned that he had a prior relationship with Lois, so did he rekindle
anything with Lois which may have made Labrador jealous if he had something
gay going on with Benedetto? If so, did such result in Labrador walking home
alone with Lois giving the other three men a ride home in her rental car?
Was there a jealousy dynamic between Spicer and Benedetto which resulted in
her being beaten by either Spicer or Benedetto?
I still don't think that it should be overlooked if Lois challenged Spicer
about being gay/bi-sexual (especially if she was interested in pursuing him
for marriage and was frustrated by his gay relationship with Evan George).
Leaving out the possibility of pursuing Spicer for marriage, did Lois simply
challenge Spicer about being gay (calling him a "faggot" or similar in his
relationship with Evan George) which might have resulted in Spicer (and/or
George) beating her (and then possibly dragging her to the water and
drowning her so she would not live to later tell authorities who had beaten
her?)?
It still remains that there is alleged blood on Spicer's clothing (which, to
my information, he couldn't explain at the time his clothing was seized via
a warrant by Tortola authorities). If that alleged blood is indeed blood and
if it is Lois' blood, did it get on Spicer's clothing if he had dragged Lois
after beating her unconscious? Or did Lois stumble into the water where she
became unconscious and drowned? Were there any signs (on the ground near her
body) of Lois' body being dragged to the water(as Lois' Mother had mentioned
that Lois was indeed dragged)? Did it rain the night/morning of Lois' murder
(as there were blood stains still on the ground, the likelihood is that it
didn't rain that night)? If that alleged blood (on Spicer's clothing) comes
back as belonging to Lois, Spicer will most likely be having an extended
stay (in her majesty's prison) on Tortola as you had mentioned on the
telephone.
Also, what about three white men that were seen following Lois along the
beach on the night of the murder (even though there wasn't an "ID" made on
the faces of those men). Then three pairs of wet sandy shoes are found at
Spicer's villa (along with Spicer's bloody clothing), and one of the pair of
shoes had blood on it... Again, if that alleged blood comes back as Lois'
blood, such is damning for Spicer as the alleged blood is on his clothing
and shoe (to my information)! If that is Lois' blood, the senior crown
prosecutor confirmed the obvious with me on the telephone in that he even
said that such is pretty damning for Spicer.
What about the drug warrant or charge that (Spicer's apparent "kept man")
Evan George was wanted on from the west coast of the USA (according to what
I had read in one of the articles)in association wiith the homeless shelter?
So add the possibility of drugs and alcohol to the equation (along with a
"kept man" who might have gone off in a jealous "gay rage" because he saw
his "sugar daddy" with a woman) as such a speculative scenario should be
fully investigated.
Lastly, the strewn personal accessories (belonging to Lois) near Lois' body
might be explained in that Lois was frantically going through her purse (or
similar) throwing out the items while trying to get the mace can that was
found clenched in her hand according to the www.apbnews.com article which
still can be accessed at the following Web site(the article incorrectly
mentions that Lois had pursued acting in Los Angeles after attending the
Parsons school in New York, but she had pursued acting before attending
Parsons and was pursuing her art after graduating from Parsons):
http://www.b-v-i.com/newslinks/
http://www.apbnews.com/crimesolvers/kobilinsky/index.html?s=pb07_blood0315_h
p
Also, if Spicer gets a felony conviction, does such show on his record in
the USA (via an international crime tracking computer network or similar?)?
Also, if there is an eventual wrongful death case brought forward by Lois'
parents against Spicer (if he eventually found to be guilty), can such occur
in the USA (since Spicer's assets are in the USA), or does such a trial have
to occur on Tortola?
Maggie
>Subject: Some of My Additional (Speculative) Thought about the Murder of
>Ms.
>McMillen (Sent in an Email to Joe Contreras with "Newsweek" magazine):
>
>Dear Joe,
>
>I have been thinking about it some more and still think that Lois' murder
>has something to do with Spicer and George (and maybe even Benedetto). Did
>you talk with Spicer's sister about him being bi-sexual because the senior
>crown prosecutor (Terrence Williams) had mentioned that a gay/bi-sexual
>leaning has been made known?
****Hoh, boy.
Where were you the night of January 14?
Maggie
"The real tragedy for Elian Gonzales is that he washed up on the shores of a
swing state in an election year."--Margaret Carlson
Jim Morris
Forwarded:
http://www.b-v-i.com/newslinks/
http://www.apbnews.com/crimesolvers/kobilinsky/2000/02/14/kobilinsky0214_01.
html
The following is about the Lois Livingston McMillen murder case which has
been covered in articles in the New York "Daily News"(one of which was on
the front page last Saturday, March 25th, 2000):
http://www.b-v-i.com/newslinks/
Best,
Forwarded:
http://www.b-v-i.com/newslinks/
Forwarded:
Dear Joe,
http://www.b-v-i.com/newslinks/
http://www.apbnews.com/crimesolvers/kobilinsky/2000/02/14/kobilinsky0214_01.
html
Jim Morris
Richmond Times-Dispatch
CITY
Page A-1
(Copyright 2000)
A white cross ringed with blood-red lilies marks the shore on the west end
of the Caribbean island of Tortola
where Lois McMillen was found slain in January.
On a steep mountaintop at the east end of the island - in a remote area
known as Balsam Ghut - is Her Majesty's
Prison, holding four Americans, including one Virginian, accused in
McMillen 's death.
The tale connecting the victim and the accused men is a complicated one,
underpinned by the affluent and
eccentric lives of those involved, twisted by rumor and set in a exotic
mountain island of palm trees and banana
groves.
The motive behind her death remains a mystery.
McMillen was found in a small inlet by the shore of the Caribbean Sea,
apparently draped over boulders, fully
clothed in long white pants and a white short-sleeved blouse with a gold
design on its front.
Her long blond hair was tangled. The front of her blouse was covered with
sand. Blood oozed from an ear. She
had been beaten about the head and face. McMillen 's personal effects,
including a heart pendant, purse and a
hair band, were scattered in a trail leading from the road over a low stone
wall to her body, suggesting she had
put up a struggle.
McMillen , a striking, diminutive women, died from drowning either late
Friday, Jan. 14, or in the early-morning
hours of Jan. 15, according to Patrick Harewood of the Royal Virgin Islands
Police Force. She was not
sexually assaulted or robbed.
McMillen , 34, was an artist from Middlebury, Conn., who had tried acting.
Just before her death, she had
become interested in sailing.
"She was a beautiful girl. She was tough," said Jim Morris, a former
boyfriend. "I just want to get to the bottom
of this."
By the evening of Jan. 15, the four Americans, two of whom had been
McMillen 's friends, were arrested. The
events sent a ripple of anxiety through the island of 16,000 plus a few
hundred longtime winter residents from
the States known as "belongers."
Charged in connection with the murder were Michael G. Spicer, 36, of
Albemarle County, Va., and a graduate
of Georgetown University Law School; William Labrador, 36, of Southampton,
N.Y., who attended Old
Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., for four years and who had just
started a public-relations business in New
York City; Alexander Benedetto, 34, of New York City, who worked with
Labrador; and Evan George, a
construction worker who lived with Spicer in his Washington studio
apartment. All four deny any involvement
in the killing.
Spicer, who had lived just outside Charlottesville, Va., for the past eight
years while taking care of his mother,
was arrested after police searched his family's villa in Tortola and seized
a shirt that authorities said was spotted
with blood. His sister said the garment was stained with barbecue sauce, an
assertion she has repeated in other
interviews.
"Michael Spicer admitted to having been wearing a blood-stained shirt,"
Chief Inspector Jacob George wrote in
an affidavit filed in the Virgin Islands High Court of Justice. "He was not
able to account for the blood."
Chris Matthews, Spicer's sister from Watertown, N.Y., where he grew up, was
incredulous at the accusation.
"The `blood' was barbecue sauce," she said. She expects the charges against
the four to be dropped.
"I think the police force just wanted to bring somebody in."
A preliminary hearing scheduled for today will determine whether the
prosecutor, called the senior crown
counsel, has enough evidence to put the men on trial on the murder charges.
The four could face life in prison if
convicted.
Relatives of the accused said they expect DNA analysis of Spicer's shirt to
be presented at the hearing. Officials
confirmed that forensic evidence is being analyzed.
Tortola, about 60 miles east of Puerto Rico, is the most populated of the
dozens of islands and keys that make
up the British Virgin Islands. Just 11 miles long, Tortola is visited by
about 250,000 tourists a year, though it is
just beginning to become commercialized.
The island has no stoplights or fast-food restaurants. Chickens and goats
wander the rutted and narrow roads,
and islanders occasionally can be seen prodding donkeys up the steep hills.
Rusted cars and debris are
scattered on the rocky shores. Avocado and fig trees and scrub cover the
slopes of the mountains, which run
almost to the sea.
The bays are dotted with yachts and sailboats. Huge cruise ships drop off
thousands of tourists almost daily
into Road Town, the island's capital.
The rich and the restless come for the island's stunning beauty. It's also
a party island for the mostly American
and British tourists who like to go pub crawling.
But many of Tortola's residents are poor, making for dramatic contrasts.
At a seaside bar blasting calypso music, a Briton decked out in the colors
of his flag can admire a $30 million
yacht in the harbor, complain about the bad weather last month in New
Delhi, India, raise a Carib beer to his
friends and call out cheers.
A few streets back from the bars, at the tiny Adina Donovan Home for the
Elderly, the sound of the residents
singing a hymn a cappella in a sad British lilt can be heard in the narrow
lanes.
McMillen , by all accounts, was restless. She had been visiting Tortola for
years, staying at her parents' home
at Belmont Estates, an enclave of expensive homes at the extreme western
tip of the island.
She was interested in groups that helped battered women and was a member of
Women in Black, a New York
City group that demonstrated against the treatment of women during the war
in Bosnia.
Her eccentricities were well-known to belongers and islanders. McMillen
dressed exotically, wearing angel
wings and a tiara one day and a wig - one of red tinsel, for example - the
next.
"She always wanted people to look at her," said a friend who knew McMillen
well but requested anonymity. "It
was always, `look at me.' The world was her stage. She was a nice person
and she didn't deserve it. But she
was a spoiled rich kid. She was always alone."
Charles "Bomba" Callwood, who owns a rustic seaside bar seemingly fashioned
with driftwood, tin and
two-by-fours, said McMillen frequented his place, which is popular with
residents and tourists. Callwood
offers female tourists a free beer for their underwear, which hang by the
dozens from overhead beams.
"She was a good girl," he said. "She was a women's libber, a fighter. She
wasn't interested in coming here for
sex. . . . Some guys come here, they act like they never saw a woman
before. I protected her."
He has two photos of her pinned above the bar. She is wearing a bright red,
sequined dress and holding a
tambourine.
Spicer was well-known on the downtown mall in Charlottesville where he
frequented the nightspots and
restaurants. Though he graduated from law school, he had not passed the bar
examination, his sister said.
Spicer kept an apartment in Washington, but he lived with his mother in
their $570,000 Albemarle County home.
"He was an interesting guy to talk to. Well read," said Gabriel Strnic, a
friend of Spicer's from Afton, Va. "He
was a good-looking guy. People warmed up to him. . . . He was not violent.
I don't see him being part of
something so brutish and ugly. It's a shock to me."
Spicer also has an eccentric side. In July 1997, he was charged with grand
larceny for walking out of an
Albemarle County furniture store with a $900 chair. He eventually was
convicted of a misdemeanor in the case,
according to court records.
"That was the crazy side of him," Strnic said. "He probably did it for the
humor of it."
Strnic also remembered Spicer chasing two friends across Albemarle County's
Farmington Country Club golf
course in his BMW in 1997. "It was one of those nights," Strnic said. "He
did it half in humor, half in
frustration."
"I like the guy," said another of Spicer's friends, who asked for
anonymity. "He was a very wealthy, educated,
socially finished man with that New England lockjaw accent. . . . He was a
crazy guy with a booming voice. He
was funny. He was a perfect caricature of bored wealth."
Labrador and Benedetto were friends from childhood, said Labrador's mother,
Barbara, who lives in
Southampton, N.Y. Her son and Benedetto had spent summers in the exclusive
Hamptons on New York's Long
Island since they were 12.
William Labrador started a public-relations firm to manage fashion models
last year in New York City.
Benedetto joined him in the business, she said. In court papers, William
Labrador listed his occupation as
investment banker. Benedetto listed his occupation as book publisher.
Barbara Labrador says her son is innocent. "There has been no evidence up
to this hour presented by the
police," she said. "Not even an autopsy report. . . . This is a Tortolian
twist on the British system of law.
There's no motive. No reason. . . . He met the girl twice in his life."
Tim Lee Sr., of Virginia Beach, Va., was in Labrador's fraternity at ODU in
the early 1980s and recalled a
"clean-cut, good looking guy. . . . He always seemed to have money. He was
always traveling. He had no
inclinations to violence."
As for Benedetto, Barbara Labrador described him as "good, good boy."
George, the chief inspector, said in court papers that McMillen 's parents,
who also were vacationing in
Tortola at the time of the slaying, had not seen their daughter since 9:30
p.m. that Friday night. The next day,
when she did not come home, they frantically called the police. By then,
officers were at the scene of the killing.
George learned that Saturday that McMillen "had earlier been seen on
different occasions in the company" of
the four accused men.
George went to the Spicer villa, known as the Zebra House, where he "made
certain observations and obtained
certain responses from [the men], which, to my mind, raised questions about
their involvement in the deceased's
death that merited further inquiry."
George obtained a search warrant and seized clothing and footwear from the
house. The men "identified these
articles as having been worn by them on the previous night," including the
allegedly blood- stained shirt.
Also seized were other allegedly "blood-stained articles" and "three pairs
of wet and very sandy tennis shoes. . .
. There was blood on one pair of these shoes," George said in the
affidavit.
"My suspicions were being intensified by the nature of certain answers
given by the various [men] earlier, at that
time and also later about these items, their movements in the previous
hours and other matters," George stated
in court papers.
McMillen 's rental car was found in a ferry parking lot about a mile from
where her body was discovered.
There were signs of struggle in the car.
The four Americans were charged five days after they were arrested. On Jan.
25, they filed civil affidavits
requesting their release. A judge denied the requests.
Spicer, in his affidavit seeking release, said he had been coming to the
family's villa on Tortola since he was a
child and had known McMillen for 10 years. Her family owns a house just
down the hill from the Spicers' villa.
Spicer said Labrador, Benedetto and George were his house guests on
Tortola.
Benedetto, in his affidavit, said he first met McMillen in 1997 in Tortola
and that the two "had a relationship"
that ended amicably after three months. Labrador and George had met
McMillen only shortly before her death.
Spicer said that he and his house guests joined McMillen on Wednesday, Jan.
12, at Bomba's Shack. The next
night the four men and McMillen again went out to bars and restaurants.
Labrador left the group early that
night, about 7:30, to return to Zebra House, while the others stayed out
late again. They said that was the last
time they saw McMillen .
Spicer and his house guests went out together again Friday night after some
friends visited at Zebra House
about 8 p.m. The four took a taxi about 11 p.m. to Quito's, a popular
restaurant and bar. Labrador, however,
changed his mind on the way, got out of the taxi and walked back to
Spicer's house.
Labrador said he heard Spicer, Benedetto and George return to Zebra House
between 2:30 and 3 a.m. Spicer
said they then watched the movie "Vertigo."
McMillen was seen late Friday night at the Jolly Roger Inn, about 20
minutes from Quito's, one source said.
But there also were reports that she was seen at Quito's much later, into
the early hours of Saturday.
A dock worker told the Hartford (Conn.) Courant that three men, whose faces
he did not see, followed
McMillen along the beach at Cane Garden Bay near Quito's about 1:30 a.m.
Quito's is a 20-minute drive from
where McMillen 's body was found.
McMillen was buried Feb. 4 on Long Island, N.Y. She was praised at a
memorial service as a deeply spiritual
woman.
"She was genuinely a good person," said Morris, her ex-boyfriend. "It's
ironic. She viewed that place as a
paradise. A safe haven."
Area/State
A COMPLICATED TALE OF AMERICAN'S DEATH
03/26/2000
Richmond Times-Dispatch
City
Page C-1
(Copyright 2000)
Lois McMillen , with striking looks, eccentric manners and a wealthy family
retreat, was well-known among the
pub-crawling crowd on the Caribbean island of Tortola. On Jan. 15, the body
of the 34- year-old American was
found in a small inlet. She had been severely beaten and then drowned.
By nightfall, four Americans, including a Virginian, had been arrested in
her death. Michael G. Spicer, 36 and a
graduate of Georgetown Law School, has lived just outside Charlottesville
for eight years, taking care of his
mother. He was arrested after police searched his family's villa in Tortola
and seized a shirt allegedly spotted
with blood.
The tale connecting the victim and the accused men is a complicated one,
underpinned by the affluent lives of
those involved, twisted by rumor and set in a exotic mountain island of
palm trees and banana groves.
A COMPLICATED TALE OF AMERICAN'S DEATH
03/26/2000
Richmond Times-Dispatch
City
Page C-1
(Copyright 2000)
Lois McMillen , with striking looks, eccentric manners and a wealthy family
retreat, was well-known among the
pub-crawling crowd on the Caribbean island of Tortola. On Jan. 15, the body
of the 34- year-old American was
found in a small inlet. She had been severely beaten and then drowned.
By nightfall, four Americans, including a Virginian, had been arrested in
her death. Michael G. Spicer, 36 and a
graduate of Georgetown Law School, has lived just outside Charlottesville
for eight years, taking care of his
mother. He was arrested after police searched his family's villa in Tortola
and seized a shirt allegedly spotted
with blood.
The tale connecting the victim and the accused men is a complicated one,
underpinned by the affluent lives of
those involved, twisted by rumor and set in a exotic mountain island of
palm trees and banana groves.
Staff writer Carlos Santos visited Tortola last week in advance of a court
hearing on the case. His report will be
in tomorrow's Times- Dispatch.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/virginia/arch/spicer27.shtml
http://www.timesdispatch.com/virginia/arch/spicer26x.shtml
http://www.timesdispatch.com/virginia/arch/island28.shtml
http://www.timesdispatch.com/virginia/island28.shtml
Jim Morris
>A Tropical Mystery / Southampton man, three others held in Tortola killing
>
>By Michael Luo "NEWSDAY" (STAFF CORRESPONDENT)
>TORTOLA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
>On the last night of Lois McMillen's life, she left a desperate trail
>strewn
>along the edge of paradise.
>
>A hair clip...a shoe...a necklace. The detritus of struggle stretched west
>along a coastal road that winds its way past aquamarine waters and lush
>islands
> in the distance, leading to where her bruised body lay drowned in the
surf
>on
>the morning of Jan. 15.
>
>"When I heard about it, it hit me like a ton of bricks," said Quito Rhymer,
>a
>local musician who also owns a popular north-coast bar and restaurant that
>McMillen frequented, where his band plays. "That ain't BVI, man."
>
>In a preliminary hearing tomorrow, prosecutors will begin to lay out a case
>of
>murder against four American friends who have been held for more than two
>months in a mountaintop jail with ocean views.
>
>They are an unusual collection of suspects: William Labrador, 36, of
>Southampton, the owner of a Manhattan public relations and model management
>firm; Alex Benedetto, 34, a Manhattan book publisher and childhood friend
>of
>Labrador's; Michael Spicer, 36, a trust fund beneficiary from Washington,
>D.C.;
> and Evan George, 23, Spicer's lover, also from Washington.
>
>They have steadfastly maintained their innocence.
>
>Tortola authorities have been tight-lipped about the evidence in the case,
>following British rules on pretrial publicity. But they say they will
>unveil
>their evidence at tomorrow's hearing.
>
>News of McMillen's murder spread quickly, shocking residents of this chummy
>vacation retreat east of Puerto Rico. Here, the expression "just limin',"
>or
>kicking back, describes a life philosophy. Steady trade winds, warm waters
>and
>bright sun draw more than 250,000 visitors, especially boaters, to the
>British
>territory every year. Violence seldom intrudes.
>
>Since 1996, there have been just six homicides, and until McMillen, none of
>them were visitors. There is no crime laboratory here, forcing police to
>send
>evidence to Barbados, and no local pathologist to conduct autopsies.
>
>McMillen, 34, the beautiful and flamboyant daughter of a wealthy
>Connecticut
>business executive and his wife, had been a familiar figure on Tortola ever
>since her parents bought a villa there 21 years ago.
>
>At the time of her death, McMillen had been living with her parents in
>Waterbury, Conn., and Tortola while pursuing a career as a painter.
>
>She had spent several years in Los Angeles after dropping out of Boston
>University in the late 1980s trying to make it as an actress and model. She
>returned to New York in the mid-1990s to complete a degree at the Parsons
>School of Design.
>
>She loved to paint on Tortola, her parents said, especially on the deck of
>their villa with a view of the palm-fringed beach in the distance. Leaning
>against a wall in the villa's living room is the last painting McMillen
>completed here, dated 1998. The canvas depicts red flames rising up, with
>several eyes with tears flowing from them, as well as a dagger going
>through a
>woman's breast. It was an expression of McMillen's outrage at violence
>against
>women, her parents said.
>
>The title: "The World is Killing Women."
>
>The McMillens' vacation began inauspiciously after their arrival on Dec.
>30.
>
>The weather was rainy, and Lois was fighting the flu, said her mother,
>Josephine McMillen, 75.
>
>In years past, Lois McMillen had become a regular at the island's popular
>waterfront nightspots.
>
>A photo taped above a window at Bomba's Surfside Shack, a ramshackle local
>bar
>built of driftwood and haphazard parts and decorated by women's panties
>that
>are exchanged for free drinks, shows McMillen next to the bar's owner,
>wearing
>a tight-fitting purple sequined cocktail dress and holding a tambourine.
>
>This time McMillen ventured out hardly at all during the first week of her
>visit.
>
>But on Wednesday, Jan. 12, two nights before she was killed, McMillen went
>to
>Bomba's alone for a barbecue, her parents said. Lois bumped into Spicer,
>George
> and Benedetto.
>
>The trio, along with Labrador, had been staying at Spicer's villa, Zebra
>House.
>
>She had known Spicer since his family built the vacation home near the
>McMillens' villa in 1981.
>
>Friends describe Spicer as an intelligent, larger-than-life figure who
>enjoyed
>the fruits of a trust fund set up by his lawyer father by traveling the
>world.
>
>A Georgetown University Law School graduate, he bragged about how many
>times
>he'd failed the bar exam, and spent his time managing his assets.
>
>"He was a life-of-the-party kind of guy," said Justin Cohen of San
>Francisco,
>Spicer's best friend.
>
>McMillen also knew Benedetto, a former Navy Seal, dating him for a few
>months
>after they met in Tortola in 1997.
>
>Benedetto, a New York University graduate fluent in French, German and
>Spanish,
> was being groomed to take over the family book publishing business,
Camex,
>his
> father, Victor, said.
>
>George said in court papers that he'd never met McMillen before. He told
>police
> he had been Spicer's boyfriend for about 21/2 years after they had been
>introduced by Cohen. Spicer, in a letter to a Virginia newspaper, said
>George
>is a recovering heroin addict, and that George planned to pursue a career
>as a
>landscaper.
>
>After meeting at Bomba's, according to an affidavit from Benedetto, the
>group
>spoke for about an hour before McMillen drove the trio to Zebra House.
>
>The next day Spicer called McMillen, asking if she'd like to get together
>with
>him and his friends, Josephine McMillen said. When she said it was
>inconvenient
> to come for a swim and drink at Zebra House, he called later and
persuaded
>her
> to go out to Pusser's, an upscale pub on Tortola's West End.
>
>"As far as I could see, she was with a very safe group of men," Josephine
>McMillen said.
>
>Labrador joined McMillen, Spicer and George at Pusser's and another pub,
>but
>Benedetto decided not to go along.
>
>Labrador had met McMillen briefly on a 1997 trip to Tortola, according to
>an
>affidavit he gave authorities. A graduate of Southampton High and Old
>Dominion
>University in Virginia, Labrador runs his public relations and model
>management
> firm from a suite of offices he shares with Benedetto's company, said his
>mother, Barbara Labrador, a member of the Southampton Town Zoning Board of
>Appeals for two decades.
>
>William Labrador has known Benedetto since the two met as boys at the
>Southampton Bath and Tennis Club during lazy East End summers.
>
>The next night, McMillen's last alive, three of the four men said they went
>to
>Quito's Gazebo, a popular north-coast night spot on Cane Garden Bay.
>Labrador
>told police he stayed home and watched television, listing in detail what
>he
>saw, including an NFL highlight show on ESPN and a program on Area 51 on
>the
>Learning Channel.
>
>The men had spent the day on a hiking trip, and Labrador said he was too
>tired
>to "go out partying."
>
>After having dinner with her parents, McMillen, wearing a new Versace
>blouse
>with a golden swirl on the front and white pants, began the evening by
>heading
>to the south-coast Jolly Roger Inn, more than a half hour's drive from
>Quito's.
>
>She told her parents when she left just before 10 p.m. she would only go
>for
>about an hour or so.
>
>The Jolly Roger was crowded as usual that night, witnesses said. A
>two-person
>band played Caribbean music as couples danced in close quarters in the soft
>ocean breeze, but McMillen sat alone.
>
>She seemed not quite melancholy but introspective, content to simply listen
>to
>the music, some later said.
>
>"When the band was on a break, I saw her get up and walk to her car alone,"
>said Remy Companys, a former Bronx resident who now spends most of her time
>on
>Tortola. It was between 11 and 11:30 p.m.
>
>Christopher Crawford, a boat surveyor from Martha's Vineyard, talked
>briefly
>with McMillen.
>
>He mentioned he and his friends were heading to Bomba's, he said. McMillen,
>sounding dismissive, said she was going to Quito's instead, both Companys
>and
>Crawford said.
>
>Employees at Quito's, however, swear that they never saw McMillen that
>evening.
>
>"The way she moved, the way she dressed, if she had walked in that door, I
>would have noticed," said Japheth Destouche, 29, a waiter. "She definitely
>was
>not here that night."
>
>But Quito's had as many as 150 people crowding its small dance floor in
>front
>of a bar area, decorated by autographed guitars hanging from the ceiling.
>Other
> patrons overflowed onto the beach on Cane Garden Bay, which is dotted
with
>other waterfront bars.
>
>A local resident named Octave William, better known by his nickname, Wally
>Moon, said McMillen was there sometime after 11 p.m. In fact, he said,
>she'd
>asked him to dance.
>
>About an hour later, William, 47, said he was standing at the bar's balcony
>when he spotted McMillen walking west along the beach. Trailing about 10
>feet
>behind, he said, were three men. One was tall, about 6-foot-3, and the
>others
>were progressively shorter.
>
>But he didn't see their faces and when police showed him photos of the
>suspects
> he could not identify them, he said.
>
>"I wasn't really observing," he said.
>
>Spicer, Benedetto and George said they left Quito's around 2:30 a.m., and
>got
>home to Zebra House about 30 minutes later.
>
>Back at Belmont Grove Villa No. 4, McMillen's parents were becoming
>increasingly alarmed. When they awoke in the morning, they found Lois had
>not
>returned.
>
>"What we thought had happened was she'd been in an auto accident," said
>Josephine McMillen.
>
>After calling Zebra House several times to see if the men might have seen
>their
> daughter and getting no answer, her 81-year-old father, Russell, called
>the
>police to report his daughter missing. A desk officer took the call and
>promised someone would get back to them.
>
>Five minutes later, the McMillens' phone rang: "We'll be right over," a
>police
>officer said.
>
>By then, police had already begun to congregate at the location off of Sir
>Francis Drake Highway where McMillen's body was found at 8:30 a.m. by a
>woman
>walking to work. Chief Insp. Jacob George, who took charge of the
>investigation, noted McMillen was fully clothed and her body had "marks of
>violence" on it, according to a court affidavit. She was not sexually
>assaulted, and she was not robbed, police said. McMillen's rental car was
>discovered about a half-mile down the road parked at a ferry dock.
>
>After talking to McMillen's parents, officers went to Zebra House just
>after
>noon. All the men except Benedetto were there. Spicer, George and Labrador
>were
> asked to come to the station for questioning. Soon after, police returned
>to
>the villa with Spicer to conduct a search and found Benedetto had returned.
>During the search, officers seized clothing and "three pairs of wet and
>very
>sandy tennis shoes" the men said were worn the previous night, according to
>an
>affidavit. An apparently blood-stained shirt that Spicer admitted he was
>wearing the night before was also taken. What also appeared to be blood was
>found on one of the pairs of shoes.
>
>Forensic test results, including analysis of a shoe print photographed in
>McMillen's car, had not yet arrived from Barbados as of last week. All four
>men
> have volunteered to take polygraph examinations and to submit blood and
>tissue
> samples.
>
>The police insist their inquiry has been thorough and exhaustive, but some
>residents and supporters of the accused questioned their preparedness for
>such
>a complicated crime.
>
>"If nothing else, it was the height of the tourist season," said Cohen,
>Spicer's friend. "The police have to do something. They can't have a
>situation
>where people think there's a murderer loose."
>
>Spicer's sister, Chris Matthews, of Watertown, N.Y., said her brother
>actually
>brought the bloody shoe to the attention of the police. The blood came from
>a
>blister suffered during the long hike the day before, she said.
>
>As for the shirt, when the police came in the morning, her brother simply
>grabbed the shirt he had been wearing the previous night, put it on and
>went to
> greet the police. "Probably not what you would be doing if you had the
>victim's blood on it," she said.
>
>But Josephine McMillen said police told her that they also have phone
>records
>that show someone from the Spicer house called David (Sallo) Blivens, who
>they
>said was their cab driver for the entire night when McMillen was killed, 21
>times that morning.
>
>"Why would you be calling that many times?" she said. "To work out your
>stories."
>
>The McMillens flew their only child's body home to be buried Feb. 4 next to
>her
> maternal grandmother in Nassau Knolls Cemetery in Port Washington. Eight
>days
>later, 250 people attended a memorial service in Connecticut where they
>remembered Lois McMillen as a free spirit who cared about feminist causes
>that
>ranged from a battered women's shelter to the plight of women in Bosnia.
>
>Last week, Josephine McMillen had taken over Lois' old bedroom in their
>villa
>to pen thank-you notes to the mourners who attended the memorial service.
>Recently, they went to take a photo of a simple white cross and flowers a
>friend had planted along the road near where the body was found.
>
>The McMillens try to carry on with daily tasks but with limited success.
>Reminders of Lois are everywhere: their home, the art on their walls, the
>island itself. Even though they have hired a lawyer to keep them abreast of
>the
> criminal proceedings, they felt they had to come back to Tortola for
>tomorrow's hearing.
>
>"I want to see these characters who I believe killed my daughter," Russell
>McMillen said.
> > Subject: Most Recent Articles Appearing Last Week in the Richmond
> >Times
> > Dispatch
> >
> > The following is an article that appeared in the Richmond Times
> >Dispatch
> > newspaper on March 27th, 2000:
> > > Area/State
> > > IS IT BLOOD OR BARBECUE SAUCE? ISLAND MYSTERY HINGES ON DNA
> > > Carlos Santos ; Call Carlos Santos at (804) 295-9542 or e-mail
> him
> > at\
> > >csa...@timesdispatch.com
> > >
> > > 03/27/2000
> > > Richmond Times-Dispatch
> > > CITY
> > > Page A-1
> > >
> > > Staff writer Carlos Santos visited Tortola last week in advance
> of a
> > >court hearing on the case. His report will be
> > > in tomorrow's Times- Dispatch.
> > >
> > >rea/State