A popular Belizean fly fishing tour guide and a well-known and respected American doctor were shot to death
SAN PEDRO, Ambergris Caye, Thurs. June 27, 2019– At about 11:00 Sunday morning, Mario Graniel, Jr., 53, a San Pedro fly fishing tour guide, and his guest, American national Dr. Paul Swank, of Roanoke, Virginia, USA, were sport fishing in the lagoon in San Pedro, when they were shot and killed.
Police said they had identified a suspect in the case of the double murder, and on Tuesday, a 25-year-old woman of San Pedro, whom they described as being important to the investigation, was detained.
Police were looking for the triggerman, who is known to them, but he had reportedly left San Pedro.
A wanted poster was issued for the arrest of Christian Espat, 23, of San Pedrito, San Pedro, and also, a reward of $2,000 was offered for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the double murder.
An all-point bulletin also was issued countrywide for Espat’s arrest, and this afternoon, Espat, along with his attorney, Leeroy Banner, handed in himself to the San Pedro police.
Before going to the police, Espat addressed the public through social media and declared his innocence. He said that he had nothing to do with the murders. He said that he was handing in himself willingly, to prove his innocence.
On Monday, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams said that a team, headed by ACP Joseph Myvett, Head of National Crimes Investigation, had been assigned to the case.
Police said that at 11:30 on Sunday morning, they were informed about the shooting in the lagoon behind San Pedro by people in the area who became alarmed by the gunshots. They went to the area, about one mile north of San Pedro, and saw a boat, in which Mario Graniel was lying. He had been shot in the chest, abdomen and leg, and he was already dead. About fifteen feet away from the boat, they saw Paul Swank, floating face-down in the water, also suffering from multiple gunshots in his head and body. He was also dead.
A post-mortem exam conducted yesterday on the body of Gary Paul Swank at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital certified the cause of his death to be traumatic asphyxiation, as a result of left lung and trachea injuries due to multiple gunshot wounds.
The post-mortem exam conducted on the body of Mario Graniel certified that the cause of his death was also traumatic asphyxiation, which resulted from multiple right lung injuries due to gunshot wounds.
During the police press brief on Monday morning, Commissioner of Police Chester Williams told us that shots had been fired at Graniel’s house in the San Pedrito area of San Pedro a few days before he was killed.
The shooting of Graniel’s house took place after he was involved in an altercation with a known gang member in San Pedro, said police.
Commissioner Williams said that after shots were fired at Graniel’s house, the police conducted patrols by his house, and were waiting for him to come to the police station to make a report, but he did not show up. Williams said that they could not follow Graniel around because he was not a prisoner.
Dr. Paul Swank, a cardiologist, was an associate professor of internal medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, and the medical director of the clinic’s cardiac catheterization lab. He and his wife and three children had arrived in Belize on Saturday, and on Sunday, June 23, he went out on the fateful sport fishing trip with Graniel.
Mario Graniel was known as a pioneer in fly fishing tours. His friends said that he was a loving person and was not violent.