Additional manpower and material for search

WILLEMSTAD — Additional manpower and material have been deployed in the search for the missing American vice-consul James Hogan.

So-called ‘defense means’ such as divers, specialists, and material will be provided for Curaçao through the Dutch Ministry of Defense. A robot, which is used to search the sea bottom, has arrived on the island today. The four technicians, who will operate the robot, had already arrived on the island yesterday. The Public Prosecutor announced that a request was made to the consul-general of the United States today for assistance in the form of divers and material that could be used with the search.

online casino

The material, which is being made available by the Ministry of Defense, consists of divers and frogmen who are capable of diving to a depth of 15 to 30 meters, Boston Whalers, and a Remus-team. This team consists of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and four staff members of the Diving and Deactivation group of the Royal Navy, which operate the underwater robot from a platform. This Remus has the form a mini-torpedo and is equipped with a side scan sonar on board to chart the sea bottom and the water column above.

Monday afternoon, a FBI-official and an official of the State Department were added to the Team Large-Scale Search (TGO), which was deployed by the Public Prosecutor on Friday afternoon. The Dutch Forensic Institute (NFI) has a research team that offers assistance with laboratory research. A number of members from the ‘National Team Forensic Tracing’ had arrived on Curaçao last Sunday. That team consists of two dog trainers, four specialized dogs for tracing corpses, and four forensic-specialists, who will assist with the gathering of evidence. The Public Prosecutor emphasizes that they are still considering this a missing person case. All scenarios, including a crime, are being taken into account.

The vice-consul is being missed since Thursday evening. He left his home in Toni Kunchi for a walk and never returned. His wife filed an official missing person report on Friday morning. The police immediately launched a search. That afternoon, the TGO of twenty people was deployed (which number has meanwhile been increased). The police circulated an official missing person report. Bloodstained clothes and blood in the surrounding were found on the peninsula of the Caracas Bay that day. The clothes and samples of the site were forwarded to NFI. The clothes could belong to Hogan.

In the meantime, wild stories are circulating in the media on Hogan’s disappearance, which for that matter, are not being confirmed by an official source. Hogan had supposedly had relations with Columbian women, a recent argument at the Amigo Terrace on the Sta. Rosaweg, and had even left a letter with the clothes with the request not to search his residence. Even though the disappearance has been announced in the American media, massive presence of news media on the island has remained forthcoming. Hogan’s family is avoiding contact and the American consulate is refusing to comment. Only Hogan’s teenage daughter posted a reaction on I Report last Sunday evening in which she denies that her parents had had an argument that Thursday evening.