The repeated failure of Scottish police to thoroughly investigate suspicious deaths has resulted in the circulation of a petition calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to introduce the right to a mandatory public inquiry with full disclosure of evidence in deaths determined to be self-inflicted or accidental, following suspicious death investigations. Sign the petition by clicking here.
Annie Borjesson (annierockstar.com)
Annie Borjesson’s death is one of the cases that inspired the petition. Annie was a 30-year-old Swedish citizen whose body was found on the morning of December 4, 2005 lying on the salt water beach near the seawall in Prestwick, Scotland. She was last seen on the afternoon of December 3 at the Prestwick airport. Annie was lying on her back with her coat and two bags close to her body. The bay is shallow enough that a person can walk out hundreds of yards during low tide before reaching the water line. The police considered Annie’s death a suicide by drowning without conducting a meaningful investigation of the suspicious circumstances under which her body was found and her known movements in the 24-hours before her body’s discovery. The pathologists who conducted Annie’s autopsy determined “death here was due to drowning.” However, the pathologists didn’t estimate her time of death or make a determination her death was a homicide, accidental, or suicide. Neither did they collect any of the water they found in her stomach for testing to determine if was fresh or salt water. Lab tests of Annie’s blood and urine found she had an alcohol level of less than .02 and no other drugs were in her system.
The website about Annie’s case, www.annierockstar.com details the evidence about Annie’s death and her known movements in Edinburgh and Prestwick in the last 24 hours she was alive.
Annie Borjesson caught on CCTV at Prestwick Airport at 3.15pm the day before her body was found on the nearby beach.
After more than three years of effort to try and convince the Scottish police to investigate Annie’s death, her mother Guje and her friend Maria Jansson who live in Sweden, contacted Justice Denied in 2009. Although normally Justice Denied deals with cases of possible wrongful conviction, it was glaringly apparent the snap judgment by the Scottish police that Annie committed suicide by drowning was based on the same disregard of the evidence that results in the prosecution of innocent persons in Scotland, the U.S. and countries around the world.
Justice Denied contacted forensic pathologist Dr. Glenn Larkin, who in June 2010 agreed to review Annie’s autopsy report and toxicology test results, documents, funeral home photographs, and photos of where Annie’s body was found. Dr. Larkin reported the autopsy report was inadequate and not performed to recognized professional standards in the U.S. To proceed further Dr. Larkin needed the autopsy photos to try and fill in holes in the autopsy report, but the Scottish authorities refused to turn them over to Guje Borjesson, so the case hit a dead end for his involvement. However, he noted a specie of diatom associated with fresh water was recovered from Annie’s bone marrow – when she was found on a salt water beach, and a drowned person is face down – when Annie was found face-up.
Annie Borjesson’s body was found just over the sea wall from where Guje Borjesson is standing. (Maria Janssen)
It is absurd for the police to have closed Annie’s case by declaring she committed suicide by drowning when there was a lack of credible evidence she drowned in the shallow bay and washed ashore to where she was found on her back with her coat and two bags conveniently near her. Annie may have been drowned, but the available evidence is it likely would have been in fresh water, and her assailant(s) then transported her to the beach with her belongings. That is also suggested by two autopsy report findings: First, “Lividity is noted in the lower back, the buttocks and upper back,” when it isn’t reasonable Annie would have lividity on her back if she drowned in the bay. Second, “there is a pale area on the left side of the nose which is in line with the pale depression noted in the forehead. This may very well be a post mortem impression as a result of the body lying on or against some article.” Annie’s body was not found lying on or against any article on the beach — so the “pale area” and “pale depression” reasonably could only have been caused if she died elsewhere.
Click here to sign the petition to the Scottish Parliament in support of a mandatory public inquiry with the release of all evidence in deaths determined to be self-inflicted or accidental under suspicious circumstances
Kenneth Roy’s six-part article about the unsolved case of Annie Borgesson’s death is in the December 4, 2013 issue of Scottish Review. Click here to read “The Mysterious Life and Death of Annie Borjesson.”
The Annie Borjesson website is, www.annierockstar.com.
The complete petition to Scotland’s Parliament can be read by clicking here.
Bottom photo: Annie Borjesson’s body was found just over the sea wall from where Guje Borjesson person is standing. (Maria Janssen)
By Hans Sherrer
Justice Denied
