Tomorrow, Sunday April 6, 2025, marks the twelfth anniversary of Sarah’s horrific murder on a houseboat in Kashmir, Northern India.
We continue in our endeavours to establish what happened that terrible night, but our efforts remain thwarted at every turn. The Guernsey inquest into her death remains open and we are no nearer to understanding what happened than we were twelve years ago.
In the early hours of 6 April 2013 Dutchman Richard to Wit was apprehended when fleeing the scene of Sarah’s horrific murder and he was charged with the crime. No further police enquiries were conducted, despite many glaringly obvious, unanswered questions concerning a number of other ‘persons of interest’. On the occasions when we visited Kashmir, accompanied by suitably qualified British investigators, we were met with a blatant wall of silence.
The trial commenced on 3 June 2013 but has been subject to countless delays and incompetence at every turn. In July 2021, after some 225 scheduled hearings, many of which failed to materialise for unforgiveable reasons, the defendant was deemed mentally unfit to continue in the proceedings. Just over 7 years after the trial began, it was officially suspended by the Kashmiri judicial authorities. The trial has now been on indefinite hold for almost 4 years with little or no hope of it ever re-starting.
Meanwhile, Richard de Wit remains in Srinagar Jail, Kashmir as an ‘under-trial prisoner’ refusing all medication.
Our love for Sarah remains as deep as ever but we have found that what does change is that we miss her more and more as time goes by. She remains very much in our memory and that of her many friends here in Guernsey and elsewhere. Sarah was an exceptional human being in anybody’s book, she shone too brightly to ever be forgotten.
The change of Government in the UK has been a major setback for us. Sadly, without greater help from key third parties such as the FCDO in London and the British High Commission in New Delhi, our chances of establishing the truth diminish with each passing year. However, our determination, on the other hand, does not.
From Kate and Vic Groves on behalf of Sarah’s Family and Friends