A mad obsession has ended fatally in tranquil Orange Walk Rural, and left a young man a widower.
On September 20, 2011, at around 4:15 p.m., the mother of a 7-year-old boy, Nelsi Chuc, was shot once in the neck in August Pine Ridge, a village situated in northwestern Belize near the Mexican and Guatemala borders and about 16 miles from Orange Walk Town, by a man who is said to have had a mad obsession for her.
According to the family, the killing took place in a cane field. Nelsi, 26, would routinely take her bicycle and ride on the cane field road. We were told she loved exercising, as a way keeping healthy and fit.
On this particularly day, though, she was accompanied by a female friend, and both were riding when they were stopped by the deranged man, who knew Chuc because he apparently lives in the same neighborhood.
Chuc stopped the bicycle, and began speaking with the man. She never came off the bicycle we were told.
While speaking with each other, an argument ensued. Police said that the man left the area and an hour later, returned and met Nelsi, who was still exercising. He had a shotgun, and told her, “If you are not for me, you will not be for nobody else.”
Immediately after uttering those words at Nelsi, he shot her in the neck.
Nelsi fell to the ground from off the bicycle; she died before reaching the Northern Regional Hospital.
Her husband of eight years, Edwardo Chuc, 29, was speechless and overwhelmed when we spoke to him this afternoon.
He said that at no time had Nelsi told him or at least to his knowledge, anyone else in the family that she was being harassed by this man.
Edwardo says that he works in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, at a resort on the island, and that he visits home every three weeks. He was at work on the eve of Wednesday, September 21, when he received the call informing him that Nelsi had been shot and killed.
Edwardo says that about a year ago, they had finished building their house and this was when they moved into the area where the man who allegedly killed Nelsi lives.
But Edwardo said he never noticed anything out of the ordinary that would indicate that the man was obsessed with her. He said maybe if she had told him something, Nelsi would still be alive today. He told us that maybe Nelsi kept quiet because she didn’t want him to get into trouble.
Edwardo, who had been with Nelsi since 2001 and later married her in 2003, says they had a wonderful relationship; they have a son, Kerry, 7. This man, he said, has now shattered his family.
The man, whose name we won’t release because he has not been charged, is currently detained at the Orange Walk Police Station and is expected to be charged tomorrow, Friday.