French Police, FBI to Meet in Dele Case

French police and FBI investigators have scheduled a private conference today in Tahiti to discuss emerging evidence and witness testimony while they prepare for Monday’s formal search aboard the boat of missing former NBA player Bison Dele.

A French police official said nine FBI investigators are in Tahiti for the Dele case. He said a public prosecutor in Tahiti is expected to declare an open murder investigation by Monday.

Dele, his girlfriend, Serena Karlan, and boat captain Bertrand Saldo have been missing in the South Pacific since early July.

Miles Dabord, Dele’s older brother who is the subject of an FBI manhunt in Mexico, sailed with the three missing persons from New Zealand to the French Polynesian islands of Tahiti and Moorea in early July, when the three were last seen by witnesses.

The French police official said his office has gathered “plenty” of information to forward suspicions that Dabord was involved in the disappearances.

Dabord, 35, also known as Kevin Eugene Williams, is already the subject of an arrest warrant in Phoenix for identity theft and forgery after he attempted to sign one of his brother’s checks and purchase $152,000 in gold Sept. 5.

The FBI has learned Dabord left a voice mail message for his mother, Patricia Phillips, Friday night.

Several witnesses on the docks of the Tahitian town Taravao have reported seeing a man they have identified as the 6-foot-8, 270-pound Dabord stepping alone off the boat before registering it. The police official said paperwork has been obtained to note the boat was docked in Taravao on July 15, not July 8 as previously believed. The official said the man believed to be Dabord signed the registration slip with an alias that was not either of his two names or that of Dele or his former name, Brian Williams.

Among the estimated 20 witnesses who have been gathered in Tahiti and Moorea are two Tahitian residents who say they drove Dabord 60 miles from Taravao so he could board an airplane departing Papeete, Tahiti, on July 20, the police official said.

“It made no sense that he would show up in Taravao, when witness statements and everything done previously on that trip indicated the group were acting as tourists headed to Honolulu,” the police official said. “They had shopped in Papeete, then found nice [hotel] accommodations in Moorea. Taravao is not a tourist spot.”

The police official said no bloodstains, damage or other signs of foul play are detectable by visually inspecting the boat from the dock. He said it is doubtful there are any bodies aboard the boat, adding, “My personal opinion is that the bodies are in the sea. The waters off our coast are very deep--planes have crashed and remain missing--so if the bodies have been [dumped] it will be impossible to find them.”