Person Burned to Death in Gruesome, ISIS-style Murder

As horrendous as that is, it is not the first time that a body has been found in a burned car on STX. Not that it lessens the atrocity but I wouldn't jump on the Isis band wagon just yet.

Wonder how they're going to perform an autopsy without a medical examiner or did they manage to get a replacemnt?

ISIS style murder? Oh puhleeze. Fanning the flames of fear.

Wonder how they're going to perform an autopsy without a medical examiner or did they manage to get a replacement?

Wow, great question.

They supposedly have temporary replacement, and I read somewhere that they claim investigations are current despite the ME shortage.

I read an article on it but it seems that there was a backlog of autopsies as replacements still had to be properly vetted and licensed here before they can perform autopsies, especially in criminal cases which could effect the outcome of any investigations and resulting trails.

Oh, here's the link to the DN article on medical examiner status. http://virginislandsdailynews.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/iphone/homepage.aspx#_article825984bd-319a-47e0-8179-c8008e590088/waarticle825984bd-319a-47e0-8179-c8008e590088/825984bd-319a-47e0-8179-c8008e590088//true/vi+medical+examiner

Nothing new on the lack of an ME - it's happened several times over the years. The article notes that funding for an in-house ME was recently approved and it's my recollection that we had a dedicated full time USVI ME for many years before shifting to a PR-based one on call.

I was under the impression the person was shot/possible dead before the fire.

Eithercway it is horrible but hardly the same as isis or even what has been reported nelson Mandela s wife did

ISIS style murder? Oh puhleeze. Fanning the flames of fear.

EXACTLY!!! my thoughts indeed. That was silly to add "ISIS style"

"ISIS-style"? Really?

IHappens more often than it should on the mainland, too. Good way to destroy evidence, make sure the victim is good and dead, and/or send a message.

Meanwhile whilst the concern seems to be a lack of a ME, or that the OP was inflammatory in her title, a man is dead, murdered brutally, and no one seems to care.

Soon someone will say that this person must have been in a gang or dealing drugs with the implication that he deserved to die. Then the crime apologists will say that since they don't do such things or go to such places it's not their worry, and the death will be forgotten. And crime happens everywhere so a shrug of the shoulders and move on back to the beach and the rum.

The lack of community outrage to these events from transplants who apparently only want to pick and choose what matters to them where they live is saddening beyond belief.

What a bloody miserable and condemning diatribe. Assume much?

What style of murder is it when someone sits in front of a console in Nevada and uses a remotely piloted drone to incinerate the bride, groom, and dozens of guests at a wedding thousands of miles away in Afghanistan?

Go to Amazon.com and purchase a copy of "The thousand year war in the Mideast" by Richard Maybury, and you may begin to understand what is happening in the world today and the root causes.

What a bloody miserable and condemning diatribe. Assume much?

It is deserved. None bothered to comment its a terrible thing that happens too often in our community (once is too often), which should be the first thing expressed or felt. None bothered to express loss for the man and his family. Seems a lot of people here are either numb or don't care.

Agreed Monogram used a poor choice of word with ISIS. Her intent was for us to talk about the terror we continue experience in our own community and that obviously bothers her. Yet the only response is to discuss her choice of title and the ME. Pathetic.

Meanwhile whilst the concern seems to be a lack of a ME, or that the OP was inflammatory in her title, a man is dead, murdered brutally, and no one seems to care.

Soon someone will say that this person must have been in a gang or dealing drugs with the implication that he deserved to die. Then the crime apologists will say that since they don't do such things or go to such places it's not their worry, and the death will be forgotten. And crime happens everywhere so a shrug of the shoulders and move on back to the beach and the rum.

The lack of community outrage to these events from transplants who apparently only want to pick and choose what matters to them where they live is saddening beyond belief.

First off, it was the OP's opinionated title that led to alternate opinions being posted. ISIS is a hot-button issue, yet the type of crime is definitely not restricted to ISIS.

Your statement is speculative. All these predicted responses will probably appear. It's a good probability that the victim was involved in criminal activity, based on statistics. But since we don't know who he is, nobody has speculated on that but you, at this point. When we have more details, it may be that the victim was participating in risky behavior, and your other predictions will probably follow suit.

Your missteps were 1. that you assume there's no outrage over these murders. If so, you haven't been reading much of this forum. Yes, we are numbed by the numbers. Will the victim be forgotten? The name probably, unless you knew him. But the act , and the increase in the violent death count won't. And 2. that you think we will think he deserved to be murdered. Perhaps some do. But you're painting with too broad of a brush there.

I suppose that your perspective toward transplants blinds you to the outrage we perceive to the community response of non-transplants, who often won't help the police solve these crimes, for whatever reason (and I've heard that sentiment from caring non-transplants as well). And for voting in a government (transplants are in the minority, right?) that thinks peace rallies are an effective means of stopping the violence, that fritter away scarce money to line their own pockets, instead of using it to beef up law enforcement, and that so often turn a blind eye to corruption and crime.

FTR, I love my cheap rum. But I haven't been to the beach in weeks, except for the many hours I've spent down there picking up countless bags of trash, tires, and cast-off furniture and appliances. So here's the thing. I live here now, and plan to stay. I pay taxes and support the local economy. I volunteer hours and donate money to help make this island better. I have managed to meet and, after a long struggle getting through the stand-offish-ness I encountered, have finally formed some comfortable relationships with locals. Maybe it would help you if you actually got to meet and know some transplants, instead of assuming the worst in us.

(tu)

Trolling, trolling, trolling
Keep those posts a trolling

Forgot the rest of the words

Rawhide!

I do believe I said it was horrible. But you seem intent on always flaming. Whats up with that

The man that was killed was also a friend of my hubbys friend.

Ditto.
I started out with horrendous and atrocious.
It is.

I didn't start out with it was horrible. I guess I assumed wrong that all murders are horrible to most civil people?

While my title was admittedly a tad Huffington Post-y, or "clickbaity," as us millenials would say, I certainly stand by it. For those who are unaware, ISIS has a penchant for confining their victims in enclosed spaces and burning them to death. This was made popular a few months ago when ISIS released footage of them incinerating a captured Jordanian pilot. It has become a trademark tactic of theirs. It's no different than describing waterboarding as an American-style torture technique. It was popularized by U.S. forces. It's no different than describing a reggae bar on the mainland as Caribbean-styled. Reggae is a staple of the Caribbean.

In any event, the focus on this title (as opposed to the gruesome details of the murder) illustrates a larger point I've been alluding to for some time. There is simply a higher pain threshold when it's local "bahn-here" savages (in their eyes) being killed. I can recall at least five people being burned to death within the past few years (one incident being a double homicide). We are a population of 100k. This is simply uncharacteristic of modern Western civilization. Yet, the discussion in this forum was not on our community's apparent descent into barbarism. It was on my choice of words in the title.

I reckon (actually, I know) that the responses from the transplants would be different had such an inhumane murder happened in their own hometowns. 🙂

I suppose that your perspective toward transplants blinds you to the outrage we perceive to the community response of non-transplants, who . . . vot[e] in a government (transplants are in the minority, right?) that thinks peace rallies are an effective means of stopping the violence, that fritter away scarce money to line their own pockets, instead of using it to beef up law enforcement, and that so often turn a blind eye to corruption and crime.

Your post reeks of victim-blaming. Yes, the people of the VI have made poor choices at the ballot box. But that is due to the decades-old miseducation of the public. Much of the population is illiterate. Many (including myself) went to schools without books and were often given games to play during class time so the teachers didn't have to teach. The vast majority of people coming out of such a system will not have developed views on macroeconomics and will certainly not be savvy enough to deduce seemingly-obvious indicia of government corruption.

Rational choice theory suggests that the voters here are not masochists. The outrage directed toward Mapp on social media and the airwaves illustrates that they certainly did not see the corruption coming. They simply were not educated enough to discern corrupt from non-corrupt (certainly many on the mainland suffer from this incapacity as well).

There used to be a time when transplants were mostly like Judy Fricks and her parents (Judy is not technically a transplant, but you get my point). Or even like Holland Redfield (a New Yorker), or Herb Schoenbohm. They realized that they were effectively in a third-world jurisdiction, and were privileged to be so much more educated than the general public. They figured out ways to help the people through educating them and tapping into the veins of the local community. Maybe it's the McCruise effect or a symptom of the recession, but the quality of transplants appears to have decreased.

My factual title was specifically engineered to see whether the responses to this thread would be humane or persnickety. The responses reconfirm the reason I joined this forum and the reasons I will continue to post.

While my title was admittedly a tad Huffington Post-y, or "clickbaity," as us millenials would say, I certainly stand by it. For those who are unaware, ISIS has a penchant for confining their victims in enclosed spaces and burning them to death. This was made popular a few months ago when ISIS released footage of them incinerating a captured Jordanian pilot. It has become a trademark tactic of theirs. It's no different than describing waterboarding as an American-style torture technique. It was popularized by U.S. forces. It's no different than describing a reggae bar on the mainland as Caribbean-styled. Reggae is a staple of the Caribbean.

In any event, the focus on this title (as opposed to the gruesome details of the murder) illustrates a larger point I've been alluding to for some time. There is simply a higher pain threshold when it's local "bahn-here" savages (in their eyes) being killed. I can recall at least five people being burned to death within the past few years (one incident being a double homicide). We are a population of 100k. This is simply uncharacteristic of modern Western civilization. Yet, the discussion in this forum was not on our community's apparent descent into barbarism. It was on my choice of words in the title.

I reckon (actually, I know) that the responses from the transplants would be different had such an inhumane murder happened in their own hometowns. 🙂

First off most people would equate ISIS with beheading videos, yet that makes no difference. You "millenials" and your clickbatey headlines, that no Gen X'er could even understand, seem to be responsible for many of the ISIS atrocities and the senseless killings here. People do become conditioned to violence. That is just a sad fact. There is no way to address the issue of violence though without addressing the underlying causes and if you think people are apathetic about violence wait for the cricket chirps at a post on socio-economic causes of it.

I suppose that your perspective toward transplants blinds you to the outrage we perceive to the community response of non-transplants, who . . . vot[e] in a government (transplants are in the minority, right?) that thinks peace rallies are an effective means of stopping the violence, that fritter away scarce money to line their own pockets, instead of using it to beef up law enforcement, and that so often turn a blind eye to corruption and crime.

Your post reeks of victim-blaming. Yes, the people of the VI have made poor choices at the ballot box. But that is due to the decades-old miseducation of the public. Much of the population is illiterate. Many (including myself) went to schools without books and were often given games to play during class time so the teachers didn't have to teach. The vast majority of people coming out of such a system will not have developed views on macroeconomics and will certainly not be savvy enough to deduce seemingly-obvious indicia of government corruption.

Rational choice theory suggests that the voters here are not masochists. The outrage directed toward Mapp on social media and the airwaves illustrates that they certainly did not see the corruption coming. They simply were not educated enough to discern corrupt from non-corrupt (certainly many on the mainland suffer from this incapacity as well).

There used to be a time when transplants were mostly like Judy Fricks and her parents (Judy is not technically a transplant, but you get my point). Or even like Holland Redfield (a New Yorker), or Herb Schoenbohm. They realized that they were effectively in a third-world jurisdiction, and were privileged to be so much more educated than the general public. They figured out ways to help the people through educating them and tapping into the veins of the local community. Maybe it's the McCruise effect or a symptom of the recession, but the quality of transplants appears to have decreased.

My factual title was specifically engineered to see whether the responses to this thread would be humane or persnickety. The responses reconfirm the reason I joined this forum and the reasons I will continue to post.

So, here's my take away;
1. It's OK to stereotype based on age. But only if you're young. Good lord, child, I'm a boomer and often resort to FB clickbait when my web sites' traffic needs a boost. The curiosity gap wasn't invented by millennials.
2. It's OK to stereotype based on where one was born. But only if one is born here.
3. It's OK to exploit a heinous murder to perform self-gratifying sociological experiments on a forum designed to help transplants acclimate to the VI. Even while complaining transplants' priorities aren't focused enough for you on said murder. Oh, the irony!

So sorry about the lack of quality transplants you're experiencing. Maybe the "good" ones see too many imperious posts and decide to live elsewhere, where the shoulders have fewer chips. Thank goodness that's not actually representative of the wonderful people I've met here.

Good lord, child, I'm a boomer.

[Satirical Post]

Well that explains it all! Me, me, me, me, me. Why are you (a self-admitted boomer) posting here? Don't you have a worldwide economy to finish wrecking? Just kidding 😉 We'll pay off all your accumulated national debt without complaint. And fund your generation's retirement. And pay for Obamacare.

I mean, your contributions to the country, (via the development of a sound retirement system, the passage of a robust economy to your grandchildren, and your contributions to the financial, criminal justice, and political systems) must be lauded.

In all seriousness, we must ensure that this barbaric murder does not happen again. I pray that the educated transplants will, like the transplants of past, use their educational and financial privileges to assist competent local leaders in solving our community's problems. We must all put down the rum and focus on reversing our community's descent into barbarism. This savagely cruel murder should provoke the sort of righteous anger needed to reverse course. Or, we may forget in a few days. Our choice.