Twenty-five-year-old Mario O’Brien Clarke was a soldier, originally from Jamaica but living in Hackney, east London, England with his new bride, Deveen, who was in training to become a nurse.
On Boxing Day, December 26th, 2002, Mario was on two weeks’ leave from the Army, and had spent a pleasant day with his wife, brother, and cousin. The four of them were planning on going out that evening, and were all sitting in the car in the driveway of the Clarke home, chatting and laughing.
Quite suddenly, an unidentified individual approached the vehicle and shot Mario once in the chest through the driver’s side window, then quickly disappeared back into the night. The victim died instantly.
Though the murder was seemingly a random act of violence, some troubling facts later came to light. According to Mario’s wife Deveen, Mario had divulged to her that the barracks where he was undergoing his training—Deepcut, in Camberley—had seen four deaths of fellow trainees between 1995 and 2002 that were written off as suicides due to an alleged culture of intense bullying. However, Mario seemed to imply that he did not believe the soldiers had killed themselves, and that the Army had murdered them for unknown reasons.
Perhaps just as suspiciously, once Deveen began making noises about these allegations, the Home Office began the procedure to have her deported back to Jamaica, only a few months after her husband was murdered. She eventually was forced to return to her home country, and officials later attempted to deny her a visa to come back to England for the inquest into the crime, which was held in 2004.
For their part, police seem to believe the murder of Mario O’Brien Clarke was a random act of violence or a case of mistaken identity, which they termed “black on black crime.” Deveen remains skeptical, though, convinced that her husband was targeted specifically for assassination because he knew something he shouldn’t. Deveen pointed out that had the crime simply been random, all four of them present in the car would likely have been shot, not just Mario; and the fact that the perpetrator killed Mario with a single, well-placed shot to the heart indicated some level of professionalism.
The families of the other four soldiers who died at Deepcut are reportedly also suspicious of the circumstances surrounding the supposed suicides, but as of this writing, the murder of Mario O’Brien Clarke is being investigated as a motiveless attack.
Crime Immemorial 