KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Friday June 17, 2016 – A Vincentian man who is currently facing murder and kidnapping charges in his homeland, has now been indicated for the murder of a 16-year-old girl who was strangled in the United States 10 years ago.
US authorities say they are sending an extradition request to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines government to have 29-year-old Veron Primus face the courts for the June 2006 murder of Brooklyn high school student Chanel Petro-Nixon.
“Ten years ago a promising young woman’s life was tragically taken, leaving her family and the community searching for answers. My office remained steadfast in our search for justice and with this indictment, we will ensure that the defendant is brought back to Brooklyn and held accountable for the death of Chanel Petro-Nixon,” Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said on Wednesday when the second-degree murder indictment was unsealed, following investigations by the New York City Police Department’s Cold Case Unit
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Primus, who previously resided in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted for the teen’s murder. Petro-Nixon was last seen alive on Father’s Day in 2006 when she left her parents’ home to visit a friend. The honour student said that she would be meeting Primus, investigations revealed.
She was reported missing the following day, when she still had not returned home. On June 22, the body of the strangled teen was found in a trash bag on Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights. A resident discovered the body after sanitation workers declined to remove the bag because the trash was oversized, according to the investigation.
Primus had initially been listed as a person of interest in the case, but was never charged. However, he was deported to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2015, after serving time for violating a protection order filed by a woman who claimed he tried to hold her against his will.
But it was a kidnapping in Primus’ homeland that reignited investigators’ interest in him. Mewanah Hadaway told police that after getting romantically involved with Primus on his return to St. Vincent, he held her captive for three and a half months, during which time he allegedly told her about a girl who was murdered in the US, and showed her newspaper articles about her.
Hadaway was eventually rescued and Primus was charged with kidnapping. When police searched his residence, they found evidence linking him to the stabbing death of real estate agent Sharleen Greaves – knives and the key to Greaves’ car. He was charged with the murder of the 36-year-old whose body was found with multiple stab wounds in her office at Bijou Real Estate on November 13, 2015.