At 11:05 this morning, Thursday, an employee of Novelo’s Shop, located on Richard Street off Regent Street West, notified his employer that the door of a small house located in an alley just behind the lot where the shop was, was uncharacteristically open.
Living in the house was Richard Hulse, 46, a well-known court reporter.
The employee approached the house, and when he got a couple feet from the door he saw Hulse lying on the floor, nude in a pool of blood.
The police were called, and when they arrived they saw that Hulse was dead. He had been stabbed multiple times over the face, back, chest and midsection.
Police have no motive for the murder at this time.
A neighbour told Amandala that she was asleep when she heard Hulse’s dog barking, and she got up and peeped through her window. She saw two young men running from the house through the alley leading to the main street, Richard Street.
It was just before dawn, and she thought nothing of it, because many thieves frequent the alley. A couple days ago she saw three young men running through the alley in a similar fashion.
Another neighbor said that the last time she saw Hulse was around 11:00 Wednesday night, before he went in for the night.
Richard Hulse, a father of two, has spent over twenty years working for many of Belize City’s media houses. In his last years, Hulse worked free-lance. His area of specialty was the courts – the Supreme Court and the Magistrate’s Courts.
His murder in this brutal fashion has shocked his neighbours and the people with whom he worked, as well as his friends.
One who was not shocked, however, was a friend known as. “Electric Gilly,” who told Amandala that he had been warning Hulse for some time about the many young men who used to hang out at his house.
He told Hulse that the young men he saw frequently visiting were very bad company, but Hulse didn’t appear to care. One of them, said the friend, must have killed Hulse.
The small house was in disorder. A mattress was in the middle of the floor and blood was everywhere, on the floor, walls, a chest of drawers, on Hulse’s documents. A pack of condoms was on the floor, soaked with blood.
Hulse’s brother, Dean Hulse, rushed to the scene when he heard the news, but police had already closed off the crime scene. When Dean insisted on entering the alley, he was arrested and taken to the Queen Street Police Station. He was released at about 6:00 this evening.
Assistant Superintendent of Police, Chester Williams, said that Dean was “disrespecting” the police.
A magistrate who visited the crime scene, Sharon Frazer of Court #6, told Amandala that Williams did not have to behave in that manner, because all Dean wanted to do was to see his brother before he was moved.
Police are appealing for help in investigating the crime, because they have little to go on. Except for some gold jewelry that Hulse was known to wear, police cannot even definitely state what was stolen. His cell phone is missing.