Autopsy Still Pending for Former U.S. Swim Champ Found Unresponsive Last Week in St. John; International Media Places Scrutiny on Boyfriend

With the results of an autopsy still reportedly pending in the death of Jamie Cail, a 42-year-old woman originally from New Hampshire who found unresponsive late February by her boyfriend in the home they shared, the family of another visitor killed in the territory is urging the community to report any information they may have in Cail’s death to the police.

The death of Ms. Cail, a former member of the U.S. National Swimming Team in the late 1990s, is garnering national and international headlines as the Virgin Islands Police Department remains tight-lipped about the progress of their investigation.

In a public statement issued immediately after her death, the VIPD said that after being found and transported to a local medical facility, Cail “succumbed to her ailment,” without disclosing further details. VIPD Communications Director Glen Dratte told reporters from CNN that authorities were “anxiously awaiting” the autopsy results, noting that it was “crucial” to get things right as the investigation unfolds, and that there were “a lot of moving parts” that had to be managed correctly by police.

That stated careful approach has not mollified Jean Cockayne, the mother of James Cockayne, a 21-year old man from Pennsylvania who was found stabbed to death in 2007 after reportedly having had an altercation with three local men. After several years and multiple trials, in 2012 Jahlil Ward pleaded to one count of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Two years prior, Anselmo Boston and Kamal Thomas had been convicted on assault and weapons charges in the matter, and each sentenced to eight years in prison. In the course of the prosecution of Ms. Cockayne’s death, convictions of Boston and Thomas in 2009 were thrown out because the presiding judge reportedly found that the family of the deceased had paid witnesses who subsequently testified during trial.