GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Rescuers were reporting 219 saved at 08:00 Swiss time but another 350 are missing after a boat disaster in Papua New Guinea. The MV Rabaul Queen, operated by Star Ships, which is one of the country’s largest ferry operators, sank between Lae and Kimbe West after being reported missing at about 08:30 local time Thursday 2 February, but the reason for the boat going down is not yet known. Australian News.com reports that six merchant vessels are in the area, helping search for survivors and that the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has “arranged ships in the area to conduct rescues and for aircraft to fly over the area”.
The owners issued a statement, according to Reuters, that the boat sank quickly, without sending a distress signal.
New Britain Island is a hugely popular diving area that pulls in international tourists.
Links to other sites: Herald Sun, Australia, Reuters
View Larger Map
Close to 160 die at sea
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND = A boat carrying more than 800 persons between the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba has sunk off the coast of Zanzibar, with nearly 190 people dead, 20 missing and more than 520 rescued, according to the government of Tanzania.
Zanzibar is an autonomous region of Tanzania and a popular tourist destination.
The boat was registered with about 600 people aboard, but dozens scrambled on in addition to those listed, and the boat’s ballast was well over its limit. It was carrying sugar, rice and wheat, twice its legal load of 60 tons.
It sank in the Indian Ocean after it was hit by high winds and waves.
Italian newspaper says mother received new letters, with message
French media report father bought one ferry ticket, Corsica to Toulon
Aunt: Zurich medical specialist says letters show father mentally ill
Update Friday 11 February Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – La Republicca, in Italy, reports that the mother of the twins, Irina Ludici Schepp, has received two new letters from the father by post, one of which reportedly tells her not to worry, that the girls are as peace and didn’t suffer. Vaud police in Switzerland said Thursday, after the latest post was delivered, that they had no new elements in the investigation, however, and the Italian story has not been confirmed.
Swiss television TSR was told by the sister of the girls’ mother that the family had asked a Zurich specialist to analyze the letters from the father, Matthias Schepp, and that his assessment was that they showed signs of mental illness but that he had a “neutral” face that would have made it difficult if not impossible for those around him to be aware that he was ill (video link for Swiss residents).
A day earlier, Wednesday 9 February, the brother, sister and parents of the 43-year-old engineer from canton Basel issued a statement, via Swiss news agency ATS, that they were all in agreement he could only have committed the “terrible acts” attributed to him if he were suffering from “a terrible mental illness and the loss of his normal personality.” Both families have said he was an attentive father.
French media were reporting widely late Thursday that Matthias Schepp, the father of the missing twins, bought a single ticket on a boat from Corsica to Toulon 1 February. They all cite an unnamed “judicial source close to the investigation”, but the information has not been confirmed officially, and until now, virtually no information has been leaked to media in France by authorities close to the investigation.
Several new elements surfaced Thursday 10 February linked to the investigation into the missing Swiss twin girls, Alessia and Livia, who have not been seen since 31 January or possibly 1 February. Their father killed himself 3 February in the south of Italy (previous GenevaLunch reports).
- Canton Vaud Police have completed their analysis of the father’s work computer, used in his office at Philip Morris in Lausanne. They now confirm that 27 January he was searching for information on firearms. During the next two days he was searching for information on poisoning and suicide techniques as well as ferry timetable information. The files had been erased from the computer, the girls’ uncle told reporters.
- Vaud Police have suspended their search operations for the girls while French authorities step up their search, particularly around Corsica.
- The girls’ uncle told reporters in Saint Sulpice Thursday 10 February that French police appear to be closing in on the details of how the father returned from Corsica to the continent, to Italy, but that details and dates remain vague.
- The mother and members of her family will be leaving Saint Sulpice, near Lausanne, to retreat somewhere away from the constant presence of journalists, with the mother suffering from nervous exhaustion, according to her brother, Valerio Lucidi.
More money found in Italian mailboxes as searches continue in three countries
Mother appeals on Swiss television to thank the public
Click on images to view larger
Alessia and Livia Schepp, photos taken last summer - the twins turned 6 in October
Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Missing twins Alessia and Livia Schepp were last seen for certain on the ferry that took them to Corsica from Marseille, police in canton Vaud said at an evening press conference Wednesday 9 February.
French police have now confirmed to their Swiss colleagues that several people saw the children in a play area on the boat and the woman in the adjoining cabin heard children crying during the night. A man who saw the father leave the boat with two small girls was able to positively identify the father, but not the children.
Reports that the girls were later sighted in Italy have not been confirmed, however, they insist, referring in particular to the owner of a bar in Italy who has come forward as a witness. Interviews with witnesses are taped and reviewed by police involved in the investigation. The police have received a large number of calls from potential witnesses, they say, all of which are being followed up.
Two more envelopes containing money, mailed by the girls’ father to his wife, have been found in mailboxes near the Cerignola train station, one containing €950 and the other €550.
Alessia and Livia Schepp, missing Swiss twins, in the summer of 2010
Three Italian police officers from a mobile unit in Bari, Italy, visited the Vaud police headquarters in Lausanne Wednesday to exchange information “useful to our investigations” said Jean-Christophe Sauterel, head of Vaud police communications, but they declined to provide further information in order not to prejudice the investigation.
New photos of the girls were also distributed to the media.
Searches, including the use of bloodhounds continues in three countries: Switzerland, Italy and France.
The mother of the girls, Irina Lucidi, has agreed to appear, live, on Swiss public television TSR Wednesday evening at 19:30.
Police at the Vaud head office were surprised to hear she would be appearing live, shortly before the TSR programme, but Sauterel told GenevaLunch that the family is free to talk to media and others: it’s important to remember that this is not a criminal investigation.
The relations between the family and Vaud police are excellent, “and in an extremely difficult context. And in an emotionally charged situation,” says Sauterel. Nothing happens fast enough for them, of course, he points out, and yet they understand, but it means continual highs and lows as information comes in.
“The family has been very lucky to have Irina’s brother, Valerio Lucidi, as a buffer between the immediate family” and the world’s media, who have followed the story closely, he notes. “He’s a doctor and he’s got strong shoulders – they are very lucky to have him there.”
Related stories on GenevaLunch
Livia and Livia Schepp, not identical twins
Witness makes unconfirmed report girls seen in Italy day father died
Update 13:25 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - French authorities say Wednesday morning 9 February that missing Swiss twins Alessia and Livia Schepp were seen on the ferry to Corsica 31 January. The information has not yet been confirmed by Vaud police, who are leading the three-country investigation, but it appears the search for the girls may now intensify in and around Corsica.
An Italian witness has come forward to say she saw the father and his daughters in Cerignola, the town where the father committed suicide, the day of his death. Italian newspapers carry an interview with a bar/cafe owner in the town who says the father asked her if his daughters could use the toilets. Video camera footage reportedly shows him, but not the girls, although she says they, too, were there. If police accept her as a credible witness, it would be the first time they were seen in Italy.
French public defender Jacques Dallest told a Wednesday morning press conference in Marseille that witnesses have now come forth who say they heard and saw the girls: the woman with the cabin next door to the trio heard them in their room and later saw the girls in the ferry’s play area. She has positively identified one of them.
The person who saw them Tuesday morning, getting off the ferry, has been identified as an elderly man who couldn’t see the girls clearly, but who saw a man and two children.
Vaud police, at a Tuesday evening press conference, stated that the father has never been been violent, correcting information that has appeared in some media reports. “There wasn’t any reason to think the lives of his daughters were at risk,” before the girls disappeared, said Jean-Christophe Sauterel, head of press and communications for the Vaud Cantonal Police.
The girls’ uncle, who has been talking to media from outside the mother’s home in St Sulpice, has said he will no longer be available to the press.
Reminder, girls’ appearance: when last seen in St Sulpice the two blond six-year-olds, who wear titanium-rimmed glasses, orange and bordeaux were dressed as follows: Alessia was in blue jeans, with a striped T-shirt and white jacket, Livia had a purple ski jacket and was wearing pink and white sports shoes.
(AP video) A ferry with more than 242 people aboard sank in heavy seas off the island of Sumatra Sunday. A dramatic rescue operation brought some 240 people to safety, but at least 29 people died, and it was clear that the ferry’s manifest did not list all the people aboard, not uncommon in a region where ferries are often over-crowded. A second ferry ran aground nearby, but its passengers are safe.
Links to other sites: AP/Yahoo, Reuters
