The victim was chopped up and put on a mattress, which was then set on fire

SEINE BIGHT, Stann Creek District, Thurs. Jan. 9, 2020– Two men have been arrested for the horrendous murder on Tuesday of Mexican national Alejandro Gabriel Guzman Cruz, 46, the caretaker of Hannas Retreat in Seine Bight. The murder occurred in his room at the retreat.

House where Gabriel Cruz lived and where he was killed

Cruz’s murderers also stole some of his belongings.

The announcement was made today by ASP Alejandro Cowo of the Police Department during the weekly police press brief, held at the Raccoon Street Police Station this morning.
Cowo said that one of the men will be charged today and should later be arraigned at the Independence Magistrate’s Court, and the next suspect will be charged pending more investigation.

Cowo said that the two men are brothers, and that they are not from the Seine Bight area.
Those who saw Cruz on the scene said that he had been chopped in the head and face and stabbed multiple times in the chest and abdomen. His hands had been tied behind his back and he had been put on a mattress that his killers set on fire.

Commissioner Chester Williams said that two men went to the retreat to steal, and in the process met the caretaker and attacked him. Williams said that Cruz, with his last strength, managed to crawl off the burning mattress and make his way to the verandah to seek help, but he fell down the stairs and landed on the ground, where he was found.

A man working in the area who was passing the house to get some sand for construction purposes, saw smoke coming from one of the rooms on the upper flat of the two-flat house. He then saw a man who was extremely bloody, with his hands tied, fall down the stairs, and he rushed to help him.

The mortally injured man identified himself as Alejandro Cruz, the caretaker of the property. Cruz told him that he had been attacked by two dark-skinned men.

The man quickly called police, who went to the scene and saw Cruz lying on the ground near the stairs in pools of his blood.

Williams said that their investigation led to a house in Seine Bight where items stolen from Cruz’s home were found. A suspect was in the house when police came, and that person was arrested. Police have begun to look for the second suspect, a 15-year-old boy.

In speaking to the media about the cruelty he saw, the worker who first saw Cruz said that Cruz had been sliced from ear to ear, his lower jaw had been chopped and his teeth were destroyed.

Observers at the scene said that the room and the verandah were bloody, which gives the impression that Cruz was not only murdered but had been tortured and butchered.

The village chairman also said that he believes that the horrendous murder was not done by local villagers, but rather, by persons foreign to the village.