DUBAI // The family of Kerry Winter, the 36-year-old executive who was murdered nearly three years ago, lost their appeal yesterday for a new investigation to find her body.
Anxious to bring a “closure” to the case, Ms Winter’s family had pleaded with the Dubai Court of Appeal for the investigation to continue.
The family’s lawyer, Hussain al Jaziri, had asked Dubai Public Prosecution to continue efforts to find Ms Winter’s body, but the request was rejected. Mr al Jaziri then asked the Dubai Court of Appeal to order prosecutors to re-investigate. That appeal was also dismissed.
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Mark Arnold, 42, was jailed for life for killing the South African and dumping her body in the ocean.
Ms Winter’s brother, Kurt, said he would not give up in his family’s search for closure.
“I’m still going to try, and will never stop,” he said. He will talk to his lawyer in Dubai and discuss other legal options.
“She’s not in the sea, I know it,” he said, pointing out that the marina had cameras that would have caught someone carrying a body to a boat.
“What can we do? Our hands are tied, but I am positive that something will come up, it’s just a matter of time,” he said.
He accused Dubai police and prosecutors of not putting enough effort into gathering more information about his sister’s whereabouts closer to the date of the murder.
“I went to Dubai on August 26, [2008], and two days later went to Mark’s house and found it being repainted,” he said. He questioned why the home was not treated as a crime scene.
“It’s difficult for us,” he said. The family hoped police could get some information out of Arnold while he was in prison, Mr Winter said.
He said he also believed someone must have seen what happened and would eventually come forward.
Arnold, from northern England, appeared in court yesterday with his lawyer, Yousuf Hammad.
“The Public Prosecution rejected the request because they finished all their investigations a long time ago and the case is already finished since last December,” Mr Hammad said last week at the first hearing on the issue. He called the family’s request “really strange”.
Mr Hammad had told the Courts of First Instance and Appeal that Ms Winter had orchestrated her own disappearance and that she was still alive.
The Court of First Instance convicted Arnold and sentenced him to 15 years, a term that was appealed by prosecution and changed to life in prison.
Ms Winter went missing in August 2008. Prosecutors said Arnold beat her with a baseball bat after taking her into the desert, put her body in a sack and threw her off his boat into the sea.
Carol Winter, Ms Winter’s mother, said that she still found it hard to believe that Arnold killed her daughter without any help.
"I still do not believe that she is dead and I cannot believe that Mark did this on his own," she said. "I just want to find her body, to bury her, and get closure," she said. Describing the situation as "like a nightmare", she said: "If I only knew where she or her body is I would be happy."
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