The well known television journalist for Channel Seven, Keith Swift, passed away Yesterday. He did not report to work yesterday morning and his roommate Mark Bowman reportedly found Swift lying face-up with foam at his mouth after five last night. His door was locked but the key was found in the door. When Bowman entered the room, there were signs that alcohol was consumed at some point over the weekend. Swift, who was thirty years old, was known to suffer from arthritis. In November last year, Swift won platinum at the 2009 UNFPA Caribbean Population Media Awards. It is a stunning development in the media industry where Keith was known for his zeal and passion to get his stories.
Isani Cayetano: “Goodnight, Marleni, goodnight Belize. I’ll start with receiving the news inside our newsroom. The boss alerted us that a text message came in and that was what the text message read. I’m still in a state of shock and disbelief. To be quite honest with you, I don’t know Keith personally but in the professional world, I should say that I know enough about him. What I found a bit interesting, surprising even is that while we were among the first to arrive at the scene, his colleagues from Channel Seven were there, there weren’t any police officers, any coroners, any medical professionals. I found that a bit strange.
What was sort of a bit unnerving for me is that usually when you deal with grieve and this type of thing, you kind of have to sensitive towards the friends and the family and what have you. And being around and gathering the little bit of information that we had preliminarily, kind of put me in a position where I feel for those who are there; his colleagues and whomsoever but at the same time I needed to get information at least to put it out there.
In our business, there are not too many of us. The media industry in Belize is a very small industry so most definitely the loss of Keith Swift is a massive one for us. A lot of us still don’t believe and still are in a state of complete shock and disbelief. Standing there tonight, the irony of the situation for me is that when I watch Seven News and I watch Keith Swift’s news product, he’s always one for the money shot. So if there’s a murder at eight o’clock or ten o’clock at night and he is on the scene, the last video footage you would get is the body riding off in the back of the pan and sadly that was the last we saw at the scene on Lizarraga Avenue. It’s so ironic the way how life unfolds and the way how things are. What I can say about Keith in a professional capacity, as I mentioned before I don’t really know him personally, we’ve always seen each other as the competition.
As much as we go in the field and we kind of look at what the other person is doing to critique where we stand, it has always been that kind of competition. I can safely say I’ve been, to some extent, a critic of his in terms of looking at what he does and saying you know what, if there’s a standard to be set, if he sets a standard I’ll try to trump that and I’m pretty that that kind of healthy back and forth happens across the board in the media. And to see someone as tenacious as he was—there were a lot of times we would go on the scene and let me see who Keith is going to interview and let me see if I could one up him, that type of thing. And at the end of it all, you look at your product and you look at his and say you know what if nothing else, we both gave it our best shot.”
Marleni Cuellar: “Let’s talk about some of the details. I know you talked about the difficulty in gathering information and I think the connection; who he is and what he does and how we know him definitely made it more difficult. But what were some of the details that you were able to gather at the scene?”
Isani Cayetano
“Like we had mentioned at the top of the newscast, the body was discovered a little after five this evening by his roommate, Mark Bowman. Apparently when Mark got home, he noticed that the door was locked but the key was in the doorknob and he called a friend of his to sort of seek confirmation on whether or not he should open the door. The friend said yes, go ahead because we don’t know what the situation is and upon opening the door, that’s when the discovery of the body was made.”
Marleni Cuellar
“He was found in his room, the living room…”
Isani Cayetano
“He was found in his bedroom. I personally did not go in the room to see the body, it’s not a thing of mine. But from what I was told he was found on the floor as if he either fell off the bed or he was struggling to get back on the bed; sort of in that position and foam was visible around his mouth.”
Marleni Cuellar
“What was the general mood of the people looking on. We talked about his media colleagues there. I’m sure neighbors and members of the public came out. But what was the general mood that you…”
Isani Cayetano
“A somber mood; very, very dismal. It took a while before the crowd gathered out there. The first time we went on the scene, we left and there was still nobody there. The police had just responded. By the time we got back the crowd was already there but everybody was just sort of curious to see if it’s true and what was going to happen next. As a matter of fact, I was able to speak with a friend of his, a close friend of his, who had made arrangements for them to hang out after work on Friday night. apparently he did not show up; I’m not sure if we’re ready to roll that footage as yet.”
Marleni Cuellar
“You have an interview lined up.”
Isani Cayetano
“Yes I do.”
Friend of Keith Swift
“Me and he always deh together especially Friday night time, we always heng out dah princess or ih would ah come dah my house. We always heng out together. Sometimes we tek wah lee drink and this really hurt me mein.”
Isani Cayetano
“When was the last time you saw him or spoke with him?”
Friend of Keith Swift
“Friday. Friday I come way yah come holla fi ah. I tell ah come meet me. Me, he and ih got wah next young man weh dah ih good friend and dah all ah we keep together. Ih always deh by my house, always. Dah my friend.”
Isani Cayetano
“Did he show up to meet you that Friday?”
Friend of Keith Swift
“No. Di other mawning I meet ah gwein dah work and I di tell ah Keith bwai di bus gwein and ih seh he neva did si di bus cause he stress out. I holla fi stop di bus fi ah and so ih get pan di bus. I just mi di worry bout ah dat’s why when I hear weh happen I run come yah because he tell me dat he stress out but ih noh tell me dah what. Ih just seh I really, really stress out. Ih seh ih depressed and I tell ah mek ih go dah da nurse dah hospital, mek ah ker ah. But ih neva did come fi mek a ker ah. But ih tell me ih depressed bad. Dat dah di last time ih talk to me.”
Isani Cayetano
“What dah your best memory of spending time with him? Maybe hanging out or what have you? What dah your best memory you could tell me you remember him as?”
Friend of Keith Swift
“I like when ih deh pan news, when ih deh pan news. He noh care weh pah he have to go, he gwein. Noh care if dah wah riot or whatever, Keith gwein. Dat dah weh I remember bout Keith. Keith dah wah person weh gwein, dat dah weh I rememba bout ah. Keith gwein anywhere weh news deh. He gwein; if dah yah, Corozal, he wah deh deh. Dat dah weh I rememba bout ah.”
Marleni Cuellar
“Alright, and that was a friend of his.”
Isani Cayetano
“That was a personal friend of the late Keith Swift.”
Marleni Cuellar
“Well, Isani thank you for coming on set and sharing with us just the immediate details that we’ve been able to gather so far and I’m sure we’ll have more on this tomorrow in our newscast.”
Isani Cayetano
“My condolences go out to the family of Keith Swift and his colleagues over at Channel Seven. It’s going to be a great loss for us in the media.”
Marleni Cuellar
“It’s a great loss to the industry in general, absolutely.”
Keith Swift, dead at thirty years.
