Just over five years after she was strangled to death on a Carnival Tuesday, police have closed its case into the murder of Japanese pannist Asami Nagakiya.

In a statement, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service said the case was closed based on the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions, who concluded that the evidence pointed to one suspect, David Allen, who was killed in a police involved shooting in December of 2016.

Allen, 31, of Enterprise, Chaguanas, posed as a woman, complete with make-up and tight-fitted clothing, when he attempted to rob Stir Fry King Restaurant and Casino Pei Da Xiu, Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook. However, he was confronted and shot in an exchange of gunfire with an off-duty police officer while attempting to escape.

In 2004, Allen, then 18, also disguised himself as a vagrant and attempted to rob a TSTT technician as he was leaving 51 Degrees nightclub at Cipriani Boulevard, Port-of-Spain. There was a struggle and the technician was shot in the stomach and later died at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. He was charged with murder.

In 2012, Allen pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. The State accepted his guilty plea and he was sentenced to four years and six months for the offence, in addition to the eight years he spent awaiting trial.

Nagakiya’s body was found around the Queen’s Park Savannah on February 10th, 2016 on an Ash Wednesday morning. 

The matter had been under the responsibility of the Cold Case Unit of the TTPS.