Malé, Maldives – Maldives Police Service has revealed to ‘The Times of Addu’ that the evidence collected so far suggests that there was no foul play regarding the disappearance of Giedre Vaskyte, 33 – a pregnant Dubai expatriate who went missing on the afternoon of February 13th after going to for a swim.
Speaking with ‘The Times of Addu’ Maldives Police Service stated that evidence has been found that the tourist indeed went missing at sea while snorkeling and that the case is still being looked into.
Maldives Police Service also debunked claims made by Vaskyte’s family while offering USD 100,000 for anyone who comes forward with information about her, in which the family said that abduction of people by pirates and kidnapping is very common in the Maldives. Addressing the claims, Maldives Police Service said that there have been no reports of pirates abducting people in the Maldives and that only very few cases of kidnapping have been reported in the Maldives, of which none have been tourists.
The Police also shared statistics from the Maldives, which showed that 19, 15, 28 and 11 deaths were recorded in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively in the Maldives, due to snorkeling and diving incidents. However, it is important to take into context that these cases are not only of tourists, but the entire country as a whole.
According to Vaskyte’s husband Parmar Gursharanjit Singh, on the day she went missing, they were relaxing at the pool together, at the InterContinental Maldives Maamunagau Resort where they were staying, when Vaskyte went for a quick swim in the sea, before disappearing without a trace.
Khaleej Times quoted Singh saying that “We were relaxing at the pool together and, at around 3.30pm, she said she is going for a quick swim in the sea. Never did I imagine that was the beginning of a horrific tragedy,”
It has been 10 days since the Canadian national went missing, and the Coast Guard services of the Maldivian National Defense Force (MNDF) have lead a five day search effort to find her via diving, air and sea surface searching. However no sign of the mother to be has been found yet.
Khaleej Times reported quoting Police Chief Station Inspector Aslam Mohamed, stating that, “We have strong evidence to believe she was lost in sea while trying to snorkel near the beach. We do not have any hint to think otherwise. No new evidence has surfaced. But we hope we could still find her safe and sound, although the probability gets lesser every day.”
