A Cambridgeshire mother in her 90s is hoping to finally see justice for her murdered daughter when a retrial into her death is due to open in the Dominican Republic this week.
The body of Lindsay de Feliz, 64, a successful author, was found in a shallow grave, close to her home in the north-west of the Dominican Republic, in December 2019.
Her mother, Shirley Firth, who will be 94 next month and lives in a small village in Huntingdon, is hoping that those responsible for her daughter’s death will finally be convicted.
“We are astonished and very pleased this has happened and hoping that new vital evidence will be presented this time,” said Firth. “Lindsay was clever, thoughtful, kind and generous in every way.”
Firth, who is still active and follows developments in her daughter’s case closely, was until recently a parish councillor. She continues to be in contact with some of her daughter’s friends on Facebook. They have shared information with her that de Feliz feared for her life towards the end of it.
“I am in contact with people on Facebook but don’t use TikTok or Instagram,” said Firth.
De Feliz’s husband of 14 years, Danilo Feliz Torres, his two sons and a fourth man were acquitted in a previous trial after charges connected to her murder.
The acquittal was appealed to the country’s supreme court and now there has been a ruling that there should be a new trial in front of three different judges.
De Feliz led a successful life in the UK, working as a marketing manager for various firms in the City. She longed for something different and in 2002 decided to leave her husband, job and life in the UK to follow her passion for scuba diving.
After spending some time in the Maldives she settled in the Dominican Republic where she worked as a scuba-diving instructor and married a local man in 2005.
After she was shot in the throat during a robbery in 2006, de Feliz could no longer work as a diving instructor. She began writing blogs about her life in the Dominican Republic and published two memoirs – What About Your Saucepans? and Life After My Saucepans.
The titles were references to a comment by her mother who had bought her a set of saucepans for Christmas that de Feliz did not take with her to the Dominican Republic. Her first book reached No 1 in the Amazon Kindle travel books chart.
She adored her adopted country and the Dominican people. According to her mother, de Feliz would leave the UK after visits home for Christmas with suitcases bulging with over-the-counter medicines such as aspirin and paracetamol and plasters that she distributed to people living in poverty who were unable to access these basics.
Firth said her daughter shared more with her friends than her family about her fears for her life. But she did say to her mother on her birthday in 2019 that she didn’t think she would live to an old age.
“When I tried to probe her about that she changed the subject,” said Firth.
“We can’t have closure until this whole thing is finished,” she added. “We hope for some resolution and to see justice done. I believe if I’m living to be old, I need to make use of the time I have, keep active and keep going with this.
“I want justice for Lindsay as do her family and many friends across the world. It means so much to me to try all I can to achieve this.”
An Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who died in the Dominican Republic and are in contact with the local authorities.”