OPINION/GUEST VIEW: Why the murder investigation involving Doris Duke should be reopened

As the only known living witness to Doris Duke’s murder of Eduardo Tirella in 1966, I contacted the Newport Police Department on July 1 and spent two hours the next day with Detective Jacque Wuest, the NPD’s “cold case detective” who then reopened what she called “the Duke case” after nearly 55 years.

I was therefore severely disappointed when I heard she not only closed the case but reached the stunning conclusion that “there is no new evidence that would change the previous conclusion in this matter” or "warrant further review.” That is simply untrue and there is a massive amount of evidence that Detective Wuest was aware of that proves it.

If you read "Homicide at Rough Point" by Peter Lance, the case for murder is clearly presented. In the book he reports, based on an interview with a Newport officer who was there on “the night of,” that the Chief of Police, Joseph Radice, walked Doris Duke "arm in arm" back into her estate. He ignored every proper protocol of homicide investigation, including dismissing the reports and actions of attending officers, took over the investigation and 96 hours later closed the case, declaring it an "unfortunate accident.” After reading Peter’s book this spring, I was compelled to come forward and testify to what was embedded in my mind from 55 years ago.

I was 13 years, 7 months old, The Newport Daily News paperboy for Rough Point. On the late afternoon of Oct. 7, 1966, I heard all of the events leading up to the murder and witnessed Doris Duke getting out of the car, standing stone cold staring down at the bottom of the car listening for signs of life and violently dismissing me three times as I offered her personal assistance, only to be told each time to "Get the hell out of here."

I did not know until the next day when I went to deliver the paper, that the man that I heard her arguing with (Eduardo Tirella) was crushed under the car. After I finished my route I went home and said to my father, "Dad, I think she killed that guy.”

During my interview with Detective Wuest on July 2, I gave her the contact info of multiple persons who could corroborate my story back to the early '70s and beyond. One of them was Danny Sullivan, a Newport Fire Department veteran, who had given me that paper route. When I left the station, Detective Wuest told me, "This is now an open investigation, not something that is going to be filled and forgotten.”

I said, "I hope so. Perhaps there will be justice for Eduardo.”

A month later, Detective Wuest emailed Peter Lance and declared my testimony “credible.” I contacted him July 3 and spoke with him for three-and-a-half hours. The next day we met outside Rough Point and when he wrote his second story for Vanity Fair Aug. 5, it included a video of his interview with me. When you consider my ear and eye witness testimony the evidence is overwhelming.

"Homicide at Rough Point" has now been on the stands since late February. It contains everything you need to know and conclude that there was a coverup in the investigation by Chief Radice. Shortly thereafter Doris Duke's purse strings suddenly opened and money flowed like water out of a broken dam throughout the city of Newport. Chief Radice retired comfortably to Florida. No one I have spoken to in the last 55 years thinks she was innocent or that it was an accident, not a single human being.

For reasons unknown to me, the Newport PD has now, once again, shut down the case and accepted the “unfortunate accident” story even though the evidence is overwhelming that it was false. In effect the Newport PD in 1966 let Doris Duke get away with murder. They shouldn’t do it again.

Eduardo Tirella was a gifted man who was brutally taken by the richest woman in America for the sin of leaving her. If you go to Peter Lance’s website you can see the kind of massive media coverage the reopening of the case has had across the globe.

The City Manager should direct the NPD to reopen the case, forever burying Chief Radice’s corrupt “accident” story and setting the record straight for Newport and its history. Eduardo was a wonderful man who didn’t deserve to die as he did.

Robert E. Walker is a resident of Newport and witness to events related to the death of Eduardo Tirella.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Doris Duke murder investigation should be reopened: Guest View