KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — A British national has been charged with killing his wife after her body was found buried in a shallow grave on the Caribbean island of Grenada, police officials said Monday.
The Royal Grenada Police Force said 32-year-old Alexander Clack was in custody on a charge of non-capital murder, meaning the death penalty cannot be considered if there is a conviction.
An autopsy conducted Sunday on the body of Nixiann Downes-Clack revealed she died of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation by strangulation. Her body was recovered Friday, days after she was reported missing by relatives on the island. It was not immediately clear if she was also a British citizen.
The 27-year-old woman was "suspected to have been the victim of domestic abuse and gender violence," said Delma Thomas, Grenada's minister of social development, housing and gender affairs.
Police said Clack led investigators to his wife's remains in Mt. Moritz, a village just north of the capital, St. George's.
A teenage girl detained with Clack on Friday has since been released from police custody. The couple apparently had a two-year-old daughter.
Anselm Clouden, Clack's lawyer, did not respond to an email seeking comment about his client's court hearing Monday. Clouden's office phone rang unanswered.
Clack was born and raised in London but lives in Grenada, a small country in the eastern Caribbean. He is the owner of SGU Fish Market, a company that delivers fish to hoteliers, supermarkets and retailers.