Over the weekend, two men died in Roaring Creek Village. The first man was clearly a case of murder, but the second man’s death will have to be ascertained by a post-mortem, that Belmopan Police say is not scheduled as yet.
And while police have been able to make an arrest in the first murder, they are n ot yet sure if the second death is a murder. Police say a post-mortem will have to establish that fact.
Last Friday night, January 29, police in Belmopan received an anonymous tip that there was something resembling bloodstains on the wall of an area known in Roaring Creek as Zinc Fence. Police went to have a look and confirmed that the stains on the wall were indeed blood.
Later during the same evening, Belmopan police got another anonymous tip. This time they were told that something was being dumped by the river. When police checked, they discovered the body of a man, who was later identified as Keith Sambula, 29.
When his body was discovered, according to police, he was wearing “a blue ¾ jeans pants, a blue shirt and a black stocking on his head, and was seen lying face down with a large cut wound from the right side of the cheek to the lower back of the neck.”
Police have managed to piece together a coherent sequence of events that led to the death of Sambula, who was originally from Punta Gorda, but who had been staying in Roaring Creek for a few days.
This afternoon, Amandala spoke with Belmopan Crimes Investigation Branch (CIB) Sergeant Solomon Westby. Westby told us that Sambula had a large wound on his head that resembles a chop wound. The post-mortem on Sambula’s body has confirmed that the cause of his death was massive trauma to his head.
Westby said that Sambula was in a yard when a misunderstanding took place and that is how he ended up sustaining the fatal injuries, following which someone threw him on the river bank.
Police reported that they had detained four persons, but only two will be charged for murder, Westby told Amandala at his CIB office.
In the second incident, Belmopan police are saying that they do not suspect foul play in the death of Lorenzo Ho, Sr., 49, because there were no marks of violence on the body.
But while that may be the police’s position, that position is not shared by Ho’s family, who are of the belief that he was murdered.
This afternoon, Ho’s estranged wife (the couple had separated for about three years), Albina Herrera, told Amandala that the last time she saw him alive was on Thursday when he had come to take a bath. He said to me, ‘I come mop up.’
That day Ho told his wife that he wanted to take his youngest child to the Belize Zoo.
Herrera said that she learned that Ho was dead from her second daughter, who told her that, “Mommy, they found daddy dead.”
As she told the story of how Ho was found in his house dead, with his face a bloody mess, Herrera broke down and began sobbing.
“When I saw his face busted up, it was really a sight to see,” Herrera said. This was around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and I feel like this was foul play,” Herrera went on. “His face was bust up and it was blue, blue, a lot of blood was on his face. When we went there, the house was open.”
“There are other people living at the house,” Herrera said, “but all they said to us is that they heard him bawling.”
Ho was a man who had no problem with anyone, his wife and one of his daughters said.”The only problem that he had was that he was an alcoholic, and that is why he had to resign from his job at the Ministry of Works. But he had no other health issues,” Herrera said.
Although family members are saying that Ho had apparently been badly beaten in his face, Sergeant Westby said that he knows nothing about Ho’s face being messed up. He said that the police will await the result of the post-mortem and take it from there.