“I didn’t want to starve my little boy I named Tyler. I gave him my milk, I washed him, I looked after him. I didn’t say anything to anyone about her birth because I was afraid of being fired. ” It was a dramatic confession, between tears, that of Jheansel Pia Salahid Chan, 28 years old born in Manila, capital of the Philippines, accused of the crime of voluntary homicide with possible malice for the death of her baby who died just two days after being born on board of the “Silver Whisper”, a luxury cruise ship flying the flag of the Bahamas, where she worked as a cleaner and dishwasher.
This afternoon, the young woman was questioned for over three hours by the judge of the Grosseto Court, Sergio Compagnucci, for the hearing to validate the arrest of the Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday evening after on the ship, docked in front of Porto Santo Stefano, at the Argentario, the carabinieri went into the cabin and found the newborn dead after the commander had raised the alarm. At the hearing, with the presence of an English interpreter, Chan was assisted by lawyers Giovanni Di Meglio and Chiara Mancineschi. According to what was reported to Adnkronos, the young woman said she had embarked because she didn’t think she was that far along in her pregnancy. It would have been her intention, once she returned to the Philippines, to entrust the child to her natural father, with whom she had a relationship that had already ended.
The other two women investigated in connection with voluntary homicide also showed up for the interrogation, namely the work colleagues who shared the cabin with the 28-year-old and where she gave birth to the baby on the morning of Friday 17 May. Dorcas Njuguini Mutunduu, 28 years old from Kenya, and Kgothadso Mabel Jasmine Mphela, 26 years old from South Africa, assisted by lawyers Mario and Luca Fabbrucci, exercised the right not to respond. The public prosecutor Giovanni De Marco requested the validation of the arrest and the precautionary custody in prison for the three suspects.
At the end of the hearing, which began at 3pm and concluded around 7pm, the judge reserved his decision. In the meantime, tomorrow, Friday 24 May, an autopsy will take place on the newborn’s little body at the Grosseto hospital to ascertain the exact causes of death. The three women were taken back to the Florentine prison of Sollicciano, where they have been since last Monday.
