NOTHING MUCH HAPPENS ON A BOAT: TRUE CRIME

By David Sacks

Guatemala, 8th July, 1978. The decomposing bodies of a man and woman were found in the sea, both bound and held under water by weights. A post mortem showed they drowned, unquestionably murdered. Surprisingly, the Guatemalan Police were not involved. The corpses were buried unidentified. Some time later, the worried families of a young British doctor, Christopher FARMER and his girlfriend Peta FRAMPTON, who were on a touring holiday, reported them missing to the Greater Manchester Police in England. A Senior Detective (the Author) commenced enquiries. From the last letter from Peta, it was known that they were passengers on a boat, the Justin B, owned by an American man Silas Duane BOSTON. The Manchester Detective learned of the finding of unidentified bodies. Suspecting they might be those of the missing pair, he sent Dental records to Guatemala, requesting exhumations. Positive identifications resulted. The American man was the obvious suspect. He had previously been suspected, by U.S. Law Enforcement, of murdering his wife who disappeared in 1968, but nothing could be proved. Due to the question of legal jurisdiction, the Manchester Police referred the case to the U.S. but the requested investigation that followed there, including a Police interview of BOSTON, stalled and the case went "cold". Thirty eight years later, in 2016, the Manchester Police were asked to re-open the case but their Cold Case Unit were unable to locate the original documents and no Officer then serving knew anything about the case. Fortunately the murdered doctor's mother, aged 91 years, recalled the name of the original Investigating Detective who had retired in 1987. He was traced, and asked what he recalled about the case. He remembered a great deal but not only that, he still possessed a complete copy of the original (lost) file! The Cold Case Unit collected the copy file the next day and, after completely reviewing everything, the documents were (again) sent to the U.S. requesting a renewed investigation. A year long investigation followed involving the F.B.I. and Sacramento Detectives. Sensational and damning new evidence against BOSTON was found, resulted in him finally being arrested by F.B.I. officers in 2017. He appeared before a Grand Jury in Sacramento and was indicted for two counts of First Degree Murder. Enquiries had also revealed that he had indeed murdered his wife in 1968. He was also believed to have killed other people! Then, whilst awaiting trial and after some five months in custody, BOSTON died in jail aged 76 years. Although not seeing him convicted was disappointing, the whole object of everything was that the murderer of Christopher and Peta so many years earlier should be arrested, and that he should then die as a prisoner, which is what happened! This sensational case, attracted world wide attention in the press. The very last words written by Peta in her last letter home very shortly before her murder on the Justin B were: "Nothing much happens on a boat"!

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1980393079
• ISBN13: 9781980393078
• Release Date: February 2018
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 171 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.4" x 6.0"