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We do not know exactly what happened to him. For two days, he used a kayak to travel the half-kilometer separating the boat from North Sentinel, where he announced passages from Genesis to the islanders.
Sometimes the islanders just watched him. Other times, they laughed.
The frustration built. In a 13-page letter addressed to fishermen by Mr. Chau, in which he explained in detail the failures to convince the islanders, he pleaded with God for clarification: "I do not want to die. Who will take my place if I do it? "
On the morning of November 17, the fishermen saw a group of islanders dragging their bodies on the beach, then burying it in a shallow grave in the sand. Fishermen and another man who, according to the police, helped Mr. Chau to visit the island were arrested and charged with culpable homicide not constituting murder and breaking the rules protecting native tribes. Another case was brought against "unknowns", the islanders, for the murder of Mr. Chau.
The investigation is now heading for unexplored territory. On Friday, the authorities sent police officers, as well as some of the arrested fishermen, on a boat to observe North Sentinel and establish where Mr. Chau was killed. But will some of the islanders be prosecuted? And if they were arrested, would they die in captivity as a result of a disease, could their immune system not compete with modern microbes?
In 2006, two islanders killed two crab fishermen after being washed off the coast of North Sentinel. Police officials are now examining the records of these murders, looking for clues about what happened to the fishermen's bodies.
Mr Pathak said that nearly a week after islanders buried fishermen in shallow pits on the beach, they dug up the bodies and held them up by tying them to pieces of bamboo.
"If they follow the same pattern," Mr. Pathak said, they could soon remove Mr. Chau's body, although he suggested that he never be found again. In the case of the two fishermen, Mr. Pathak does not think that their bodies were ever found and he seemed to indicate that it was also a possibility in this case. "If we can possibly see John's body at a distance, at least his death will be fully established," he said.
In his last letter, Mr. Chau was clear on what he wanted to do in case he died. "Do not get my body back," he says, emphasizing it. "This is not a useless thing – the eternal lives of this tribe is at hand."
