Retired doctor who worked in B.C. stabbed to death while in the Bahamas

A retired B.C. doctor was stabbed to death in his vacation home in the Bahamas last week, the family says.

Workmen arrived at Dr. Geoffrey Harding’s palegreen bungalow on Thursday morning. But Harding did not greet them outside as usual.

The men found the 88-yearold dead on the floor inside with multiple stab wounds to the chest and head, Harding’s son-in-law Thor Pruckl said.

Judging from the scene, the doctor was likely reading in a lounge chair on Wednesday evening when he was attacked, Bahamian police told the family.

Harding’s compact car was found on the other side of the island, presumably stolen then abandoned by the assailant, the son-in-law said.

“It’s a very despicable crime,” Pruckl said Monday by phone from the house on Long Island, less than a kilometre away from the ocean.

“There’s lots of stuff scattered around,” he said, as the doctor’s cat meowed in the background.

A team of detectives was on scene and has since taken a man into custody, according to Pruckl and local media reports. Calls to Royal Bahamas Police officials went unanswered Monday.

Harding was a U.K. native who worked as a doctor in the Second World War, Pruckl said. He emigrated to Canada where he worked as a doctor in Saskatchewan and B.C.

“It’s the end of a dream for him. Not a nice end, but an end. He had always wanted this, always wanted to retire on the island,” he said. “We’ve lost a really decent guy. You know? Just a really decent guy who’s not here.”

The British consulate confirmed that officials were providing assistance to the family.

Harding’s four daughters were in Nassau, where they were to identify the body.