THE HUSBAND OF murdered Irish honeymooner Michaela McAreavey has offered a reward in Mauritius for information on his wife’s killer.
John McAreavey has travelled to the island off the coast of southern Africa in an attempt to re-ignite the investigation into Michaela’s murder in their hotel room in January 2011.
No one has ever been successfully prosecuted for her killing.
McAreavey today, at a news conference in the Mauritian capital of Port Louis, offered a reward of two million Mauritian rupees (about €53,000) for information on the murder, the BBC reports.
The sum equates to roughly twice the average salary of the island nation.
“We believe we have given the Mauritian authorities every chance to deliver on their very public promise that justice would be done,” McAreavey said today.
“However, until this visit, the reality falls far short of that and as the years have passed, it appears that the unofficial policy has become one of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.
But we have no intention of just slipping out of mind or sight.
“Mauritius is a country I have absolutely nothing against,” he told the BBC.
But the reality is that my deepest darkest fears and nightmares came to reality here, so whenever you’re actually back here, it’s not easy.
An anonymous phone service has been established to allow people with information to contact the Mauritian authorities.
McAreavey, together with his sister Claire and Michaela’s brother Mark, has already met with the Mauritian prime minister and police chiefs.
Yesterday, in advance of meeting McAreavey, the Director of Public Prosecutions of Mauritius stated that the now six-year investigation into the Co Tyrone woman’s 2011 murder remains open.
Two hotel workers were charged with the murder of Michaela in her hotel room at the four-star Legends resort in January 2011, but both were acquitted following a subsequent trial by jury in 2012.
Since the acquittal of the two hotel workers, there have been a number of developments in the case. Laws have changed in Mauritius which would allow retrials for the men if “compelling” new evidence comes to light. Some of the exhibits of evidence have also been sent to specialist a DNA testing facility in France.
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