B.C. retiree killed in Bahamas

Dr. Geoffrey Harding was not there to greet the workers when they arrived Thursday morning at his bungalow in the Bahamas.

This was odd, since the 88-yearold often brought them coffee or water before they started their work, landscaping the property.

So after a while, they went inside to check on Harding. He was found lying in a pool of blood on the floor, dead from multiple stab wounds to the head and chest, a family member said Monday.

Judging from the scene, police believe the retired British Columbia doctor was likely reading in an easy chair Wednesday night when he was attacked, said his son-inlaw, Thor Pruckl. There was a book nearby.

“It’s the end of a dream for him. Not a nice end, but an end,” Pruckl said over the phone Monday from the house near Clarence Town.

“He had always wanted this, always wanted to retire on the island. We’ve lost a really decent guy. You know? Just a really decent guy who’s not here.”

His compact car was found on the other side of Long Island, presumably stolen by the assailant, the son-in-law said.

Police have taken a suspect into custody, according to Pruckl. The Royal Bahamas Police detective in charge of the case refused to answer questions Monday. He directed inquiries to police headquarters, which did not answer calls.

Local media identified the suspect as Moses Morris, 43. He served 20 years in a Nassau prison for manslaughter and is also being held for other alleged break-ins on the island.

“Police are thinking probably robbery,” Pruckl said. “It’s hard to tell what’s missing because everything’s been riffled through. … I haven’t found his wallet yet.”

Harding built the little palegreen house with a wraparound deck on a gravel road less than a kilometre from the ocean about three years ago. There was nothing lavish about it; nothing that would have attracted a burglar, his sonin-law said.

The retired gynecologist spent the winter at the house and was planning to return to British Columbia at the end of the month. He stopped practising medicine in about 2008 in Gabriola Island, B.C. — where “roars of laughter” often emanated from his consultation room, colleague Dr. James Mackenzie recalled Monday.

“The quality that one remembers most is the uproarious laughter,” Mackenzie said. “Never did I dream … that this is how he would meet his demise.”