Over the holiday period which ends with the New Year’s long weekend, the Samoa Police confirmed three tragic deaths, an alleged drowning in Nofoalii, a suicide in Salelologa, Savaii, and the discovery of the body of a New Zealand sea captain on a boat at Matautu.

The cause of death for the New Zealand national cannot be confirmed but his death is being treated as a homicide. For the drowning, the police said they did not see any signs of foul play but the Coroner has ordered an autopsy.

Police Commissioner, Auapa'au Logoitino Filipo said a Samoan accompanied the New Zealand captain and he reported the death. He said reports confirmed that he was onboard one of the fishing export vessels.

Auapa'au added that they are treating the incident as a homicide and are currently investigating the incident.

"At this stage, we cannot confirm what happened and we only have one statement and that is the person that accompanied the captain," Auapa'au said.

"We are investigating it and will wait for what the Coroner has to say."

The most common factor here is that Samoa still lacks a forensic pathologist who will carry out the post-mortem examinations when needed. A majority of these investigations depend on a speedy autopsy.

For example, the Nofoalii drowning could have been resolved now if Samoa had its pathologist and the death of the Kiwi captain would also be determined. It is now 2024, and Samoa is gearing up for bigger and better things and one of them should be a full-time resident pathologist.

As of now, we are relying on the help from the Fiji Police Force. The Fijian pathologist comes for a week, does his work and goes away. But sometimes bodies stay in the morgue for months with no retribution and closure to families. The wait also means it takes longer to put these cases to rest.

The principal aims of an autopsy are to determine the cause of death, mode of death, manner of death, the state of health of the person before he or she died, and whether any medical diagnosis and treatment before death were appropriate.

Let us remind the Ministry of Health, the Police, Government and all the relevant authorities today that an autopsy is a statutory requirement for a deceased, where and when it is necessary. In other words, it is not an option. As the Government, they must ensure this legal requirement is satisfied.

The previous Government failed in this regard. Either they didn’t care or they just couldn’t be bothered, which is regrettable. But that is in the past. This is 2024 and the fact that Samoa does not have a specialist pathologist is unacceptable.

There are so many intelligent Samoans here and abroad. Surely one of them could have been trained in this area? Surely a few of them could have been persuaded to pursue this as a career path? Surely there are Samoans who could be well qualified for this role? Why is it in this day and age are we even having this conversation?

The concern regarding the lack of pathologists has been raised by the courts over and over again.
The Government must lead the way and provide incentives for Samoans to be interested and take up this field of study.

What is so difficult in asking our donor countries and donor partners for a particular scholarship or two for people in this field? When that is secured, make sure there is enough money and incentives to keep these people here for the long term. The Government has to think long-term and be strategic in where it places its money and our people.

The death industry is a thriving business because people will always die whether we like it or not. And many of them will require autopsies, which is why it would make a lot of sense to make this a priority now.

In October of this year, Samoa will host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. For this meeting alone, $20 million was set aside in the National Budget. This is a one-off meeting which the nation will always be proud of, however, if similar funding is provided to first employ a full-time foreign expert and then urge our donor partners to help us train one or two continuously, we will not have this problem.

These matters are more urgent and need an urgent fix.