The yacht Sea Oak sailed into American Samoa's Pago Pago Harbour this morning Tuesday with a man on board believed to be the fugitive murder suspect Dean Jay Fletcher.
The vessel was last seen fleeing Tongan waters on Sunday after a dramatic five hour stand-off with Tongan police.
Mr Fletcher is wanted after escaping custody following the death of his wife.
Our correspondent in Pago Pago Monica Miller told Sally Round the yacht turned up this morning.
The yacht Sea Oak
Photo: Tauva Esera
Transcript
MONICA MILLER: What I've just been able to get from the port authorities is that he came in, he sailed in, and he tried to get some fuel at the dock but there's a tanker in port so he was not able to fuel up right away and by the time that he docked at the main dock the word had gone out that the Sea Oak was in town and the port authorities had been alerted. We do have a transnational crime unit in our Department of Public Safety and we had carried the news last week on Friday and one of the port officials said that it was also that same day that a member of the transnational crime unit came and distributed through his office information and also some pictures and this is what they had distributed to their staff, so, unbeknownst to Mr Fletcher, the word had gone out that this man was, had escaped, and his yacht was something that people were told to look out for, so essentially he was detained in the sense that the marine patrol unit kept him at their vicinity and at this moment authorities are talking and it's not clear exactly what grounds he will be held on. We can verify that there's no extradition agreement between Tonga and American Samoa but it seems as if there's some provision in this transnational crime unit that American Samoa is part of and other Pacific islands are part of that may just be the vehicle that is going to be used for whatever action comes after.
SALLY ROUND: No arrest has been made?
MM: As I understand it, no. Mr Fletcher was happily napping on his yacht at the marine patrol vicinity and he did not seem to have any care in the world when our reporter saw him and she snapped a few photographs and that's about what I can tell you at this stage. Certainly the news has gone out and people knew because we got tipped off by somebody who was on the road and saw this yacht and said hey, it's the Sea Oak, so that's how we got wind of the story.
SR: Is there anyone overlooking the yacht or is it being held in custody, are there guards around it?
MM: No, actually it's like any other yacht except that the yachts don't normally park at the marine patrol unit. Usually once they are boarded by immigration and the quarantine inspectors give it the all clear then they'll be just allowed to go into a section of the harbour that's close to Pago Pago where they'll just dock but this one is docked at the marine patrol for now.
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