Voodoo, violence and a mysterious death: Heartbroken parents reveal how British AIDS expert's new life in St Lucia turned into a nightmare

Secret wedding: Hilary, her hair in dreadlocks, married Cleus in 2009 - she didn't tell her family she was marrying him

Hello Friends!

Her career as an AIDS expert for the World Health Organisation had taken Hilary Hughes to many exotic locations, but the tiny island of St Lucia captured her heart.

Divorced, and with her son James almost grown up, it seemed like the ideal time to make a fresh start and build her dream home – so she decided to sell her house in West Sussex to pay for a plot of land on a hillside overlooking the Caribbean.

Her new life appeared to be complete when she fell in love with and married Cleus Augustin, a Rastafarian 17 years younger than her. He was the muscular young builder she had employed to construct her house.
Tragically, however, Hilary, 50, died in hospital earlier this month in circumstances that have prompted the local police to open a criminal investigation.

St Lucia police commissioner Vernon Francois said yesterday: 'As far as I know, no arrest has been made. The matter is still under investigation and we are still working with the hospital authorities towards determining an exact cause of death.

'A post-mortem examination has been conducted but further work is required. We are intending to speak  to several people in connection with this matter and one of those will be her husband.'
Now her heartbroken parents have revealed the extent to which her dream of happiness on the paradise island turned into a nightmare.

In phone calls home, a disturbing picture of Hilary's life emerged that alarmed her elderly parents. She claimed she had been defrauded over the purchase of her land and then blocked by the police from taking any action.

She discovered that the person who sold her the land was not the only person who claimed ownership of the plot. And after completing her £120,000 home, she faced voodoo-style intimidation – with dead animals left outside her house.
Hilary's married life appeared equally troubling, with stories of domestic violence and hospital treatment emerging within a year of the 2009 wedding and a petition for divorce being filed by her last year.

 Investigation: Commissioner Vernon Francois said no arrest has been made

Her 80-year-old mother, Pamela Hughes, said: 'She rang me regularly to say what was happening and it worried us terribly.

'I don't know how much money she lost over the sale, but it was a lot. She tried to get the police involved, but they wouldn't let her press charges.

'Then several neighbours – who had been very pleasant when she first moved in, even asking her to read a eulogy at a funeral – claimed to be descendants of the original owner of the land and said they were entitled  to a payment.

She spent a fortune in local courts establishing she had the right to sell the house she had built.'
The judgment in her favour did not end local resentment in the tiny  village of La Guerre, a poor community of 60 houses mostly built of tin.

According to her mother, Hilary's life 'turned very nasty indeed'.

St Lucia is predominantly Roman Catholic but as is the case in many former French and Spanish colonies, some of its 166,000 inhabitants also practise a form of voodoo called Obeah and they directed these dark forces against the Englishwoman in the house on the hill.

Her mother, who lives with husband Barry in Dorridge, near Solihull in the West Midlands, said: 'Hilary told me  there had been dead dogs and cats left in her garden as a warning.

'She said it was a form of voodoo designed to intimidate her and she was very frightened.'
By this stage, her marriage was offering little comfort and neighbours said they regularly heard arguments coming from the marital home.

When Hilary wed in June 2009, she kept it a secret from her family.

The nuptials were witnessed by the groom's parents and her best friend.

Wearing a tight-fitting floral dress, she had her hair dreadlocked Rasta-style and looked a picture of happiness as she pledged herself to her smiling suitor.

But within a year, 5ft 1in Hilary was in hospital and filing charges of assault against her new husband.

Barry, 79, a retired professor of engineering, said: 'She said she had been in hospital over a week. She had pictures taken of her injuries so she could prove how bad it was.

At Christmas that year Cleus brought his five-year-old daughter to visit England when Hilary was spending time here with James but we refused to meet him.

'We took the little girl out but we wanted nothing to do with him after what he was supposed to have done.

'Hilary was an attractive, outgoing woman. We wished she'd ditch him and find somebody normal.'
Hilary initially pressed charges against Cleus for grievous bodily harm but these were withdrawn in January 2011 when the matter went before magistrates.

Dream home: But Hilary's house on the hill caused legal disputes with locals

In April last year, she filed for divorce on the grounds, acceptable in St Lucia, that the marriage had lasted less than five years and Cleus moved out.

But this was not the end of the relationship. According to Hilary's mother, while her daughter was away on one of her frequent foreign trips Cleus would move back into the house.

Whether it was the loneliness of a single life in a tiny, hostile community where the only shop is a dilapidated caravan selling cold drinks, or the fear of failing at a second marriage, Hilary's feelings for Cleus remained strong and she kept seeing him. 

Then, last month, Hilary was readmitted to the island's general hospital. A day later she suffered a stroke and a heart attack.

Her son James, 18, and her sister Sarah, 49, flew out to be at her bedside but after two weeks in a coma she suffered respiratory failure and died on May 4.

Initially, the death was described by the police as a 'tragic accident' and due to 'natural causes' but last week The Mail on Sunday revealed that officers had changed their minds and had made it a criminal investigation.
The news that their daughter's death was being viewed as suspicious by the authorities has caused anguish to her parents.

Her father said: 'To think she still wanted to go back to that man is very painful for us to bear. The entire venture had been a nightmare.

'Hilary had always been very successful. She's always been a good provider and earned enough to send her son to boarding school, but in St Lucia she went from a position of being quite well-off to one where she was constantly having to ask for our help.

Revealed: How the Mail On Sunday reported Hilary's death last week

It seems that while they welcome foreigners over there as tourists, it is fatal for that tourist to be so attracted to the place that they acquire land.'

Her mother added: 'We just want the St Lucia police to investigate it properly. Hilary loved St Lucia – the climate, the countryside and the people – and I think she felt utterly let down.

'She was a friend to the whole world and had dedicated her life to going to poor places and making a difference to their health needs.

'I really want to know why she died, and if anyone is responsible for it then I hope they are hunted down so they don't ever have the chance to do it again.'

Hilary's death comes less than five months after another Englishwoman, lawyer Sarah Thomas, 46, who also married an islander, fell 100ft from a cliff to her death. Her family accepted the police verdict that it was an accident.
Cleus could not be reached for comment.

 

Culled from The Daily Mail UK.

xoxo

Simply Cheska...