It was a bloody weekend. The Police Department is investigating six murders which occurred over two days.
Three of those six murders occurred within 5 miles outside Belize City on the Northern Highway, about 500 yards from the main road near the Haulover Bridge. In a not so populated area, three bodies were found, almost in the same area of the same road, within a four-hour span.
In an incredible turn of events, it appears that police officers who were standing guard over the first body and preserving that crime scene, became witnesses to the second and third murders.
The first murder victim remains unidentified. Little is known about “John Doe,” described only as a dark-skinned Hispanic man, other particulars unknown.
On Sunday evening, March 25, at about 5:00, police responded to a call which informed them of a body lying on a “picado” road just to the north of the Haulover Bridge.
There police found a man whose body was in a state of decomposition. His throat had been slit. He was clothed in a long jeans pants, black T- shirt and white socks.
Police say that a post-mortem conducted on the body of John Doe at the crime scene, certified that he died from asphyxia due to a stab wound. But sources we spoke with say that John Doe’s throat had actually been slit.
Because of the badly decomposed state of the body, police were posted in the area to keep watch until this morning, when the police pathologist, Dr. Mario Estradabran, was scheduled to do the post-mortem. It was while police were guarding the John Doe crime scene that two other persons, a man and a woman, became gunshot murder victims in the same area. The shooting victims were identified as Lake Independence mother, Keiva Leslie, 24, and a companion, Dorian Michael, 32, believed to be only a friend, said police.
Leslie was found dead on the scene around 9:30 p.m., but Michael was still alive. He was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital but died shortly after his arrival. Both victims had been shot in the head. It is uncertain whether Michael was able to tell police anything about his attacker(s).
Police investigation into the double murder led them to the discovery of Michael’s van, a red Astro, which police said they found on Partridge Street Extension late this evening, sometime before 4:00 p.m.
While it is uncertain how the two victims, Leslie and Michael, actually reached the area where they were murdered, police say that the same Astro van had been involved in a hold-up earlier Sunday night at the Freetown Gas Station on Freetown Road.
Earlier Sunday evening a gas attendant was reportedly robbed at gunpoint, allegedly by two men who had alighted from a red Astro van fitting the description of Michael’s vehicle. The men escaped with $300 in cash from the gas attendant and then sped off in the vicinity of the Belcan Bridge roundabout. Their vehicle was seen heading up the Northern Highway. Police do not know whether or not the two victims were in the vehicle at the time of the robbery and/or getaway.
Dorian Michael’s relatives, with whom the newspaper spoke today, do not want to speak about the tragedy. A close relative said that Michael was no troublemaker and that he did not deserve such a cruel death.
Leslie’s mother, Shawn Lemott, who late this morning found out about her daughter’s death, said she is in shock because she believes her daughter was forced into the van by her attackers. The deceased Leslie, who is the common-law wife of police constable, Ryan Timmons, was the mother of two young children.
According to Shawn Lemott, her daughter was last seen on a bicycle after she left home to go to work at Ready Call. She was due back home at 9:00 that night.
Her husband had reported to police that Keiva Leslie did not come home Sunday night. Today, he made a check of the unidentified female body and said that it was his common-law-wife.
The family does not know the whereabouts of her bicycle, cell phone and other personal belongings. They say they have no idea whether or not Leslie and Michael were friends.
Late tonight, relatives told Amandala that police, after searching the van, found Keiva’s missing belongings, except for the bicycle.
According to police records, three other murders occurred over the weekend, one in Rural Belize and two in the Orange Walk District.
On Sunday, March 25, around 8:30 a.m., Gary Gabourel, 41, a security guard of Belize City and a resident of Willows Bank, was gunned down in his yard.
The father of 8 was shot once in the chest with a shotgun, and died instantly.
That murder was later followed by a stabbing incident that took the life of a policeman’s son.
Dead as a result of an altercation was Roberto Diego Patt, 28, a resident of Guinea Grass who was stabbed by a commuter after they had alighted a bus in Orange Walk Town. Patt is the son of Sergeant Francisco Patt, attached to the Criminal Investigations Branch of the Belize City.
His murder was followed by the finding of the remains of a woman. Police say they are awaiting the result of a test to determine the woman’s identity.
Police say that yesterday, at about 1:20 p.m., they made the discovery of human remains in the Mampushole area of Carmelita Village, located in the Orange Walk District.
The woman was wearing a pink blouse, along with a ¾ jeans pants and a pair of black and red slippers.
An eyeglass and a set of upper dentures with strips of gold between it, and a green and black knapsack were also found near the body.
The jewelry –a chain, a ring, a medal among other items – were found on the remains, said police.