The family of a 65-year-old woman who went missing at sea in 2019 has appealed for closure after the Police advised they lost the file on the case.

The sister of the missing woman, Maria Duffy contacted Samoa Observer last week to express concern that four years since her sister went missing, they are still unable to get a death certificate issued because the police are yet to submit their report.

She said they have approached and followed up with the Police many times and were advised that the documents on the missing person case are lost as their investigations ceased two years after the case was first reported. 

"We need to have her death certificate issued but we can't because the police do not have any documents of their investigation's results and they said they lost it when we followed up with them," said Ms. Duffy. "The investigation stopped two years ago as is the normal process but after those two years, we've been following up with police on their report but up to this day they kept saying they don't have any files."

Several attempts by this newspaper last week to seek comments from the Police Commissioner, Auapa'au Logoitino Filipo and his Deputy, Papali’i Monalisa Tiai-Keti were unsuccessful. 

The Fire and Emergency Service Authority (F.E.S.A.) Commissioner, Tanuvasa Petone Mauga was also approached for comment by this newspaper on Wednesday – as some of his officers worked with the police during the search in 2019 – but he said he is not aware of the final results or the report of the investigation.

He said that the Police are normally tasked to lead the investigations and put together the final report for such cases.

"All I remember is we (F.E.S.A.) called off at the same time with Police from the search after there were no other signs of survival or anything," he said. "We had commercial and special divers there at sea during the search and unfortunately there were no signs."

Asked about the two-year timeframe policy of Police investigations, Tanuvasa said that is the normal Police procedure for any investigations of this nature.

In 2019 Ana van Dijken – who travelled to Samoa to visit family and was supposed to leave the country on the day she went missing – was swimming with six other family members at Fagalei in Falelatai when she went missing.

After she went missing her family camped on the uninhabited coastline for days to provide refreshments for divers and others who joined in the search and rescue operation, which was coordinated by the Police and the F.E.S.A. One of the missing woman's sons, who is a marine biologist, also helped in the search for his mother. 

A security guard at a nearby resort, Lupematasula Falaniko of Falelatai, told this newspaper at that time that the nearby waters were dangerous due to its close proximity to an ocean channel.

“I feel sorry for the family because they came for a temporary visit, and they do not know that that place is a bit dangerous because the channel is very close to the shore,” he said at that time. “I think the poor woman did not know the channel was close to her.”