Stains on yacht point to Basketball star's murder

By SCOTT MacLEOD

Basketball star Bison Dele may have been shot with a pistol after sailing from New Zealand on his luxurious yacht.

Evidence is growing that Dele, his girlfriend Serena Karlan and French skipper Bertrand Saldo were murdered with a handgun on board the 16.7m catamaran Hakuna Matata.

The Weekend Herald reported that the yacht was found last week at the Tahitian hamlet of Taravao. It had been cleaned, painted and renamed Aria Bella.

It emerged yesterday that the clean-up may have covered bullet holes and blood.

Radio RFO-Polynesia said investigators using ultraviolet viewing gear had found dark stains on the bridge.

The public prosecutor of Papeete, Michel Marotte, said the missing trio were probably "assassinated" with a pistol on July 8 or soon after.

Yachties arriving in Tahiti are supposed to declare whether they have any guns on board. No weapon was declared for the Hakuna Matata.

The prime murder suspect is Dele's brother Miles Dabord, 35, who is in a coma in a United States hospital. He is the only one of the four who sailed from New Zealand to have been found.

Dele's yacht arrived in the Bay of Islands on January 26 and spent six weeks at Westhaven Marina in Auckland before leaving for Tahiti on May 29.

Dele, 33, won an NBA championship with Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in 1997. His wealth is estimated in the tens of millions of dollars.

His brother is known to have left Tahiti on July 19 or 20. He was found lying on a street in Tijuana, Mexico, on September 15 and was taken, unconscious and critically ill, to Scripps Hospital in San Diego.

Scripps officials were unable to give his condition yesterday. Police have been ordered to guard him, but would not comment last night because the FBI had taken over the case. FBI officials could not be contacted.

Dabord was already wanted by the FBI on fraud and forgery charges. The bureau alleged that the 35-year-old tried to buy $323,000 of gold coins with Dele's chequebook.

FBI spokesman Andrew Black said it was not clear if Dabord had tried to commit suicide or was in the coma because of a medical condition.

The brothers' mother, Patricia Phillips, told the Chicago Tribune she had received two "frantic" cellphone calls from Dabord. He said he feared no one would believe his story and that he needed to hear his mother say she loved him before he died.

Last week the Los Angeles Times said a murder inquiry had started. It was prompted by Dabord's girlfriend, Erica Weise, who said there was a struggle on the yacht that left Dele, Karlan and Saldo dead.