Fresh autopsy to probe British teen's death in Goa

Posted 03 6 2008 9:55PM

PANAJI, India (AFP) - Authorities in India's Goa state have ordered a new autopsy to investigate the death of a British teenager whose family dismissed the police version that she died of drowning.

Scarlett Keeling, 15, was found dead on the popular Anjuna beach last month. Her family said injury marks on Keeling's body suggested she was murdered and that there was little evidence that she had drowned.

Only the previous month, the federal government asked authorities in popular tourist destinations to review security measures after a spate of highly-publicised sexual attacks on foreigners.

"I have ordered a second autopsy. If required, I will personally monitor the investigation," Goa chief minister Digamber Kamat told reporters late Wednesday in local capital Panaji.

The government intervened after a meeting with Keeling's mother Fionna MacKeown.

"I am happy with the chief minister's assurance," MacKeown told AFP.