What really happened? The saga continues, the Last Voyage of Dayra Wood, Panamanian Seafarer

“Vanguardia”

The last voyage of Dayra Wood, Panamanian seafarer

Veracruz, Ver. – After 21 days in a refrigerator of the oil tanker Valencia, the body of cadet Dayra Wood Pino was transferred to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Boca del Rio for an autopsy and to determine the causes of her death.

The young woman died on August 4 aboard the ship, but it was not until August 21 that the captain docked in the port of Veracruz and notified local authorities.

Once the relevant authorities were advised, because of red tape and the forensic investigations, the body remained four days aboard the ship as it was docked in the T, near the tourist boardwalk.

At 10:00 a.m., on Saturday, experts from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) took the body of the sailor and moved it in an ambulance to the Forensic Services Division of the Attorney General’s Office (PGJE).

The president of the Panamanian Federation of Merchant Navy Officers, Luis Frutos Barrios, confirmed that the autopsy was performed on the girl, in order to expedite the process of transferring the body to her country to be delivered to the family.

Neither the Panamanian or Mexican authorities have determined how the young woman of 22 years of age died.

The day the ship docked in Veracruz, it was reported unofficially that she died on August 4 in the engine room when an arm and a leg were mutilated.

A mystery

Her death remains a mystery because the crew and the captain could not explain why it took 17 days to report to Mexico that aboard the ship they were carrying a dead person.

Edwin Wood Pino, brother of the cadet, traveled from Panama to Veracruz to demand that the authorities speed up the bureaucracy and deliver the body to take it back to Panama.

They are originally from the province of Colón and she had determined to study Marine Engineering in Naval Machinery at the Panama International Maritime University.

The victim was the youngest of six children and had just graduated in August 2011, as reported by the Panamanian journalist Gilberto Perez.

Wood recalled that Dayra sailed from Balboa, Panama, on August 1 as part of her professional practices, and that this was her first trip.

Three days later, staff at the university where she was studying visited the Wood family home to inform them of the death of the girl without giving further details.

Luis Fruto, president of the Panamanian Association of Marine Officers, accompanied Edwin Wood to Veracruz to investigate the case of the engineer officer presumed killed during an accident at sea.

He said the declarations of the crew and the authorities are confusing and unclear and on that ground he is demanding an investigation to go to its conclusion.

Fruto said Panamanian maritime authorities knew of the death of the woman from August 7 and should have forced the ship to dock at the nearest port.

He accused the Valencia of making landfall twice before Veracruz in Mexican ports without anyone noticing that the ship was carrying a corpse on board.

Rare case

The sailor Dayra Wood Pino died on August 4 on board the Valencia.

The crew reported the death 17 days later.

The captain said the woman had an accident in the engine room and lost an arm and a leg. Sadly, Edwin Wood requires the death of his sister to be investigated thoroughly.

“Rotativo”

Irregularities seen in death of Panamanian cadet.

Veracruz, Aug. 24 (AP). – The inspector of the International Federation of Maritime Transport Workers, Enrique Lozano Díaz, said that the death of Panamanian Cadet Dayra Wood Pino, aboard the vessel “Valencia” is irregular, so authorities will have to investigate.

“The death happened while navigating to Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche, on day 4 (of August), and from that day on the ICE, a radar detector that pinpoints a ship worldwide, was strangely stopped from sending a signal, or (was) turned off,” he said.

He said that the maritime authority said the ship docked in Ciudad del Carmen, allegedly trying to offload the body but the agency refused to accept it, and “We also know that apparently neither the master nor the owner of the ship reported it to the maritime authority.”

He said that through a letter dated August 7, the Panamanian Association of Merchant Navy Officers notified the government of that country about the facts, so that should have given warning to the Mexican authorities to locate the ship.

According to early versions, Dayra Wood Pino, a recent graduate of the Panama Nautical School, who was making her first voyage, allegedly died after an accident in the engine room on August 4, a fact which was not reported immediately by the captain of the ship, Jose Galloway Molina.

“The captain of a ship, after there is a death aboard, should dock at the nearest port and send the body ashore for an autopsy,” he said.

He said the ship was fueled 60 miles north of Dos Bocas, Tabasco, “But apparently it failed to report having a corpse on board, that is why it appears on Monday as if no one knew anything.”

At this point Lozano Díaz said that the Panamanian authorities should be allowed to carry out their investigation of the vessel in conjunction with the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).

Meanwhile, the brother of the cadet, Edwin Wood, who is a first engineer, asked the Mexican authorities to expedite procedures for repatriation of her body.

“I would like to make clear that from 5:30 p.m., on August 4 my sister died and see how many days have passed, so we ask that you please take the measures so that we can take her home,” he said.

He said that, since then, his family has communicated daily with the shipping company for the repatriation of the body, “but they were only saying ‘we are doing our best’, but did nothing,” he said.

This post is also available in: Spanish