Famed forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden said hasty prosecutors and a poor decision by the trial judge were to blame for the failure to convict anyone for the murder of Rebecca Middleton.

Dr. Baden and fellow US expert Henry Lee had been tracked down by Det. Sgt. Terry Maxwell after the legal case began to unravel and testified in the collapsed murder trial of Justis Smith.

Dr. Baden, the Chief Forensic Pathologist for the New York State Police, recalled looking at the crime scene at Ferry Reach where Rebecca met her violent end. He saw the photos of the body in the roadway.

He said: ?The crime scene had been tampered with.

?When we came down and reviewed everything ? the murder would have occurred on the beach and the body was moved up and put on the roadway with the idea, it appeared to Dr. Lee and myself, that someone coming along on that dark road would hit the body on the road and make it appear like it was a road accident.

?They were thinking about how to get out of it.?

He said they determined from blood spatters that the body had to be brought to the scene by two people carrying it.

?A very serious mistake was made when the prosecutor provided immunity while having no idea who the perpetrator was. He gave it to the one who was more serious, who left DNA.

?It seemed to me they were acting in concert.?

He said the jury should have decided the matter.

?Every time there is a sexual assault and a murder the defendant always says there was consensual sex. You have to rely on credibility.

?Is it possible that it happened that way? Anything is possible. Is it reasonable? No.

?Sure it?s possible but it?s bizarre and I don?t believe it.

?It?s lousy for the prosecutor to make a decision like that before you get all the evidence in.

?First get the facts ? the autopsy, the scene, the DNA. Once you get all that in you know how better to interrogate witnesses and ask questions and get additional information. That?s where detecting comes in.?

He said whenever there is a crime, information is given out first by the suspects and then Police go back and get more evidence and information and question them again to see if the story changes to accommodate the new facts.

?If you give immunity before you can do that then you can never really test Mundy?s statement,? he said.

Dr. Baden, who has dealt with cases all over the world, said it was premature to accept a deal without knowing whose DNA was found on the body.

?It?s a very basic mistake. The Police did the job properly as I recall, the prosecutor screwed up. Pearce, the new prosecutor then tried to make up for it. That?s one of the reason he had Dr. Lee and myself come down.

?He tried very hard to undo the damage which had been done.?

He said he felt Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux then made a serious error by saying there was no case for Smith to answer.

?I think the jury was also shocked by that.?

Dr. Baden, like Rebecca?s mum Cindy Bennett, felt the judge was intimidated by Smith?s lawyer John Perry and yielded too much.

He said he believed there was enough evidence to get proper convictions.

?You have very good Police down in Bermuda and very well trained. Maybe it?s the politics of how you choose prosecutors and judges.?

Dr. Baden, has seen hundreds and hundreds of murder scenes in his time, some sadder than others.

?If heroin addicts get in a fight and one gets killed, or spouses are always fighting and one gets killed ? as sad as those are the victim has something to do with the murder. They are not totally innocent. It?s drugs or alcohol or they stayed in abusive relationships.

?But this kind of death is more outrageous and upsetting.

?Not because there was so much blood at the scene but because she was totally an innocent victim. It?s very sad ? a 17-year-old tourist.?