At about 4:00 on Wednesday morning, according to police in the western town of Benque Viejo, Martin Carter Aird, 23, a business student of Sacred Heart Junior College in San Ignacio Town and resident of the Chial area of Benque, was found dead in his home at Mile 71 on the Western Highway, in a case that police are treating as an apparent suicide.
A post-mortem took place at the San Ignacio Hospital Wednesday afternoon. Today’s police press release states the certified cause of death to be intracranial and intracerebral damage from a gunshot wound. Police do not suspect foul play.
Reports to Amandala are that Aird was found with an apparent gunshot wound to the head, a .25 Beretta pistol with one expended shell lying beside his body.
Martin Aird is the son of Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education and Youth, Christopher Aird, a former principal of Sacred Heart High School, and Dr. Eve Aird, president of Sacred Heart Junior College in Cayo.
It was his mother, police say, who last saw Martin alive around 10:30 Tuesday night, his father’s birthday. The police release states that the young man reportedly had wanted to kill himself in 2007, as well.
We got no response from the listed address for the family in the telephone book, and Christopher Aird was not in his Belmopan office today.
That is the official aspect of the story, but what is as yet unclear is why Martin Aird chose to take his own life.
We spoke to a good friend of his, who requested anonymity, and she gave us background on who Martin was, and why his death is such a tragedy.
Martin’s personality, our source told us, was that of a comedian, the life of the party. He could light up any room he walked into, and as far as his friend knew, did not possess suicidal thoughts or suffer from depression.
Even stranger is Martin’s use of the Beretta, since, according to our source, he did not have a gun license and it is not clear if his parents owned any guns.
The 23-year-old got excellent grades and “had it all in his hands. He could be anything he wanted to be,” our source said.
But it may be that the recent end of a long-term romantic relationship may have been the trigger, although our source refused to speculate on that directly.
We understand that Martin and the young woman (who has been identified to us) had been together for the last four years and broke up over the weekend. Other reports to us say that Martin’s relations disapproved of the relationship from the beginning, but that Martin stood firm until their separation.
“Everyone who knew him is in shock right now,” our source told us.
Martin is survived by his parents, brother Blaze, sister Raine, and other relations. Funeral arrangements have not yet been determined, to our knowledge.