On Saturday, April 17, at around 12:00 midnight, Erin Sutherland, 17, a laborer of Orange Walk Town, died after being stabbed in the cheek, chest, abdomen and forehead.
Police are seeking one “Dean” in connection with the incident.
Unconfirmed reports are that Sutherland had left home at around 10:00 p.m. to visit his girlfriend, who works at Lee’s Restaurant.
Shortly after seeing her, he left and headed to Sapodilla Street, where he and entered a lot which holds an empty house which is under construction, and another wooden structure rented by two homosexual men.
Sutherland went inside the apparently empty house and it was there that an unknown assailant stabbed him.
We visited the home of Sutherland’s mother, Linda Rivero, and this is what she told us: “Erin was a well-behaved child, very quiet and loving. We didn’t expect this because he was here with us that night and then around 10.00, he left to visit his girlfriend who works at Lee’s Restaurant. I went to sleep and then someone came knocking on my door and they told me that they had stabbed Erin at the gay’s house. I then ran to the house and saw Erin lying on a couch, unresponsive and his eyes were closed. I then said Erin, Erin…..they left my son there to die.”
Rivera said that she doesn’t know what her son was doing in that house, but she had been told that the homosexual men were having a party and that one of the homosexual men, L.M., told another homosexual man, “You can do anything you want with Erin.”
We visited the crime scene and we spoke to the two homosexual men, who told us that they had nothing to do with the murder and that all they were trying to do was save Sutherland’s life.
“Yes, it was my birthday and I was having a small get-together. My friends were inside my house and then we heard a noise and this is when we came out to see what was happening. We saw a black man with a machete jump through the window of the empty house. Everyone here chased the man, but I stayed. I could barely see inside the empty house, but I noticed someone lying on the floor. I called my other friend and we entered the empty house and I noticed it was Erin. My friend and I brought Erin inside my house and we put him to lie on the couch. I was so scared because he was not responding. I didn’t even know that he had died in my arms. [This man], L. M., had nothing to do with it because he was at the hospital waiting to see if Erin was going to make it.”
Eyewitnesses say that they had seen the unknown assailant in Nostalgia Bar, just a house away from where Sutherland was killed, and that he had been drinking and fighting. One eyewitness called the police, but they did not respond to the call.
“If the police would have responded to the call we had made, this would have never happened. The man was at Nostalgia Bar drinking and fighting.”
The assailant managed to escape and Sutherland’s family told us that police are saying that he is from Dangriga. He remains at large.
On the night of the murder, police detained a man, L.M., but he was released shortly after.
The homosexual men wanted to send this message, “We know Erin for a long time, and he comes here all the time for advice. We had nothing to do with his murder and we are so sorry this happened. People might want to judge us and think that we lured him into this, but that’s not true.”