OTTAWA -- Terry Schwarzfeld's death was caused by the head injury she sustained when a man hit her on the back of the head with a piece of wood in Barbados last month, autopsy results confirm.
"Yes, she died from a blow to the head, we can confirm that," Royal Barbados Police Force assistant superintendent Seymour Cumberbatch said yesterday.
INVESTIGATOR IN TOWN
Barbados police investigator Leviston Eversley arrived in Ottawa early yesterday morning with a digital camera and rings stolen from Schwarzfeld and her daughter-in-law Luana Cotsman when they were attacked on Long Beach the afternoon of Feb. 28.
Cotsman is recovering, but Schwarzfeld, 60, died in Ottawa hospital March 18.
Eversley will be in Ottawa until tomorrow morning to meet with the coroner and have Cotsman identify the evidence.
Det. Sgt. Roch Lachance of Ottawa's major crime unit met Eversley at the airport at 1:15 a.m. and drove him to his hotel in an unmarked Jeep.
"There are some administrative things I have to do," the soft-spoken Barbadian police officer said, clutching his carry-on bag containing the evidence.
Eversley met with Schwarzfeld's grieving family yesterday afternoon at their Lynhurst Ave. home.
Curtis Joel Foster, 24, was arrested last Friday morning in his home in the rural parish of Bayfield, St. Philip, on the island's southeast coast, about four miles from the scene of the crimes.
During the arrest, officers found an imitation handgun they believe was used in the attack on Schwarzfeld and Cotsman, as well as their camera, which still had photos of their vacation.
Foster was charged with Schwarzfeld's murder in Oistins District court Wednesday.
He pleaded guilty to five robberies against tourists, including two Canadians, on the same stretch of Long Beach that the attack on Schwarzfeld and Cotsman occurred.
Foster was sentenced to two years in jail for those robberies.
He is also charged with the rape of a German tourist in July. He'll answer to the indictable offences -- murder and rape -- in Barbados Supreme Court at a later date.
Foster will be back in court in Barbados April 2 in relation to another theft charge.
Foster had been known to Barbados police, but they wouldn't reveal any details of previous criminal convictions, citing Barbadian law.
BETH.JOHNSTON@SUNMEDIA.CA
