Child Rapist Kills American Tourist In Grenada

The alleged killer of American tourist Jessica Colker was remanded in custody today after being charged with her murder. David Benjamin made a brief appearance at Grenville Magistrate's Court where he was charged with non-capital murder. The 26-year-old did not speak during the hearing. He was then remanded in custody to St George's prison. Benjamin's father was in court but refused to comment as he left.

He is suspected of killing Colker who died from extensive skull fracture and asphyxia, as she walked along a deserted beach with her husband on the first day of her holiday. Benjamin attempted to hide his face as he was led in handcuffs to a waiting car from Grenville Police Station. The alleged murderer, who wore a green and white checked shirt and jeans, held up his charging sheet to his face.


Colker, an anesthesiologist from Atlanta Georgia, is said to have been raped before being murdered but that was not on the charge sheet. Grenada has the death penalty but non-capital murder means that Benjamin will not face the ultimate sanction if found guilty.

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Her distraught husband Brian Meloti spent Tuesday with officials at the US consulate in Grenada's capital of St George. He is preparing to fly back to their home in Atlanta with his wife's body after it was released for burial by a medical examiner on the island.


Benjamin’s father had expressed fury yesterday when approached by a Daily Mail Online reporter at the bar shack he runs, and where his son was living before the attack.


Benjamin Snr at first refused to acknowledge his son was in police custody. He then shouted out aggressively: 'I have got nothing to say to you – talk to the police. 'I don't want to say anything. The police are the only ones who can help you now. I can't say anything.'


Neighbors said his son David had been living with his father since being released from prison in December having been jailed for raping a14-year-old girl.


Sentenced to 15 years he is thought to have been released early after serving five years.


The Benjamin family home is a ten-minute walk from the Le-Cheasere beach in the parish of St David where the attack took place on Sunday afternoon.


Colker and her 62-year-old husband, a doctor, were on their first full day of their vacation when they were attacked. The couple had walked along a trail from the La Sagesse hotel to a deserted crescent shaped beach that can only be reached by following a path through a dense mangrove.



It would have taken the couple at least 15 minutes to reach the secluded spot where waves from the Caribbean crash onto the beach. Police said Dr Meloti was not injured so he ran half-mile back to the hotel to raise the alarm.

The murdered tourist and her husband

The suspect's father