Scarlett Keeling's mum says death of grandkid "horrific"

The mother of a British schoolgirl Scarlett Keeling, who was found dead on a Goa beach in 2008, said she had suffered another personal tragedy as her newborn granddaughter had passed away, a media report said.

Scarlett, 15, was found dead on Goa's Anjuna beach in February 2008. Police initially claimed the death to be due to accidental drowning, but her mother Fiona MacKeown insisted on a second autopsy, the Mirror reported.

The subsequent post-mortem showed presence of ecstasy, cocaine and LSD in the teen's body, along with 50 cuts and bruises and evidence of sexual assault. In July, the Bombay High Court awarded Samson D'Souza, a beach shack worker, a jail term of 10 years for sexually assaulting Scarlett, and then leaving her to die.

It was alleged that D'Souza plied her with drugs, raped her and left her unconscious, face down, on the beach.

Fiona MacKeown now says the death of her two-month-old granddaughter Zylla, who was the daughter of Scarlett's half-sister Isis Storm Celeste, in Brittany, France, was "horrific".

The baby was found unresponsive in the early hours of November 3 after sleeping alongside her mother Isis and father Ludo, 24. Fiona said Zylla's death had brought back horrific memories of Scarlett's death as French authorities removed all the organs of the baby during autopsy and then returned her to her parents without telling them, they claimed.

Now the family members face a three-month wait before holding the funeral and fear further expenses to ensure her organs were returned.

Fiona said: "It's like reliving it with the organs because that's the second shock we had with Scarlett when we got her home. Her organs were missing as well."

A fresh autopsy in Britain had found that the murdered teen's uterus, pancreas, both kidneys and spleen were missing.

"It's like reliving it all over again and having to watch Isis go through what I went through 12 years ago is really sad. They are saying we might not get them back, the French aren't being that cooperative because I think they've made a mistake by not telling Isis that they were going to take all the organs... I hope they (parents) get the organs back.

"It's a bad enough thing... she needs to bury her and start moving forward but that's going to be very difficult if she's always going to feel like there's some of her missing," Fiona said. IANS