I have always thought that if ever I am murdered ? yeah my mind works overtime when I am bored ? the only thing that would vindicate my death would be that my murderer gets caught and gets punished accordingly. No death penalty for my murderer, thank you very much; that?s getting off too lightly ? it?s over in a couple of minutes.

No, I would like my murderer to rot away in the filthiest hole at Beau-Bassin prison so that he has time to think hard about what he did. Depriving the world of nice old me!

Anyway jokes aside, whether a murderer feels remorse or not after having committed a crime is not the point. The point is killing someone especially if the killing has been premeditated is the most horrible thing that could happen ? besides rape, that is. And there?s a reason why the penalty for killing is as high as it is. But what?s the point of tough sentences if a murderer is never found?

Vanessa Lagesse?s murderer will never be punished for his crime. He has entered the young woman?s home, probably had a violent argument with her and then maybe in the heat of the moment ? or maybe not, after all it could just as well been cold blooded murder for all we know- he just decided that he should kill her.How horrible. How despicable. And how terribly ghastly that we have to guess how the woman died because officially we don?t know what actually happened.

Because if we did know, we might have been closer to the truth. The truth regarding how she died and, above all, who killed her.

And how absolutely revolting that this poor excuse for a human being will never be caught and made to answer for his contemptible act. And whom do we have to blame for this?

An easy ? and not wholly unjustified answer ? would be the police. The Mauritian Police Force has lamentably failed to solve a murder.

It isn?t by any means the first murder that the police have failed to solve and this column certainly does not seek to downplay other unsolved ?mysteries?.

But this type of scenario has been too frequent for comfort.

I still remember the day when a camera was produced as exhibit in court and when the magistrate asked the policeman what was on the film, the guy was bemused. ?What do you mean?? he asked the magistrate. The police had saved a camera to keep as exhibit and the camera had remained the property of the police for five years and no one had thought to open the camera to find out what was in there and to examine the film. No one.

Another answer would be the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Why doesn?t he think Bernard Maigrot should be prosecuted for the murder of Vanessa Lagesse?

Same as in Cehl Meeah?s case, people are perplexed by this kind of unilateral and unexplained decision. But anyhow.

Rest in peace, Vanessa. Even if your country has failed you.