The family of a slain Peace Corps volunteer believes the agency’s mistake in revealing her role in the dismissal of a colleague, whom she had accused of sexually abusing children in Benin, contributed to her death.
Kate Puzey was found dead in March 2009 shortly after her Beninese colleague, Constant Bio, learned from Peace Corps officials that he would be fired from his contractor post, ABC News reports.
“We wouldn’t be sitting here, I think, if they [Peace Corps] had been more transparent with us, more honest with us,” Lois Puzey, the victim’s mother, told ABC News in a Jan. 14 interview.
Bio, who has said he was being framed by the U.S., has been in custody since the murder while Beninese authorities investigate.
Several years ago, Puzey reportedly alerted the Peace Corps director for Benin, Sheryl Cowan, in an e-mail about Bio’s alleged sexual acts against children. Authorities say Bio discovered Puzey’s role in the accusations against him, ABC News reports.
The Peace Corps has been mum on the issue, with neither public acknowledgement of the breach of confidentiality nor any apology to the Puzey family.
Carrie Hessler-Radelet, the Peace Corps deputy director, declined to comment whether the agency is liable for Puzey’s death.
“I cannot say because the investigation is not complete,” she told ABC News.