This morning two children – a little girl, 2, and a little boy, 4, were the only witnesses to a stabbing incident in which their father, 28, savagely stabbed their mother, 22, in the palm of her hand when she placed her hand over her stomach, which, it seemed, was the intended target for the knife. He then turned the knife on himself. The man, whose name police have not revealed because he has not been formally charged, stabbed himself in the stomach. The knife was stuck there until doctors removed it at the Northern Regional Hospital (NRH).

Amandala today spoke with the investigating officer, Inspector Ricardo Logan, attached to the Orange Walk Police Station. He told Amandala that at this time they could not say what caused the stabbings, because they have not yet interviewed any of the parties involved.

Sometime around 9:30 this morning, the cops were called to San Jose Palmar Road, which is located on the way to the village, where they found Miriana Buddan and her common-law husband suffering from a stab wounds. Miriana was stabbed through her right palm and her common-law husband, a part-time employee of Belize Sugar Industry (BSI), had the 8-inch blade of a kitchen knife stuck in his stomach just above the navel.

Police said that Miriana and her husband were found in the living room/dining room area of the house, which is occupied by Miriana and their two children. The husband, who is estranged from his wife, lives at the other end of town in Trial Farm.

Both Miriana and her husband were conscious, said police.

The husband is tonight undergoing surgery, but he will be charged for stabbing Miriana, said police.

Inspector Logan was unable to tell us exactly how much of the blade went into the man’s stomach.

This evening we were able to speak with Miriana’s mother, Maria Buddan. She said that upon her return from a shop, her neighbor told her that her daughter had been stabbed by her common-law-husband and that he had then stabbed himself.

When she quickly checked, she found her daughter with her hand almost cut in two, and her ex son-in-law standing behind the door, still conscious. She was the one who made the call to police, said Maria.

Before she got to her daughter, however, she found her two grandchildren at the gate, crying frantically, saying “papa muerto” “daddy dead,” over and over.

Her daughter told her that her ex common-law husband had actually tried to stab her in the stomach, but that she used her hand to block the blow, and that is how she was stabbed in the back of her hand, through her palm. The knife, after going through the palm, still cut the skin on her stomach, said Miriana.

Her common-law husband, said Miriana, then dragged the knife downwards, splitting her palm from the middle down to the edge, the knife going through the bones.

Seeing the blood spurting, the husband then stabbed himself in the same spot for which he had aimed on her, said Miriana.

Maria explained to Amandala that her daughter and her husband had been estranged for five months because he had been abusive and jealous. They had been in a relationship for over five years and he did not want to leave, Maria explained.  Because of the abuse, several other reports had been made to the police, some by her, she added, until the two finally split up and were living on their own.

Miriana did not wish for him to visit the children, but her father had urged her to permit him to visit, and she finally had agreed. He visited, but Maria thought that he used the children as an excuse to see Miriana.

Yesterday he also visited, said Maria, and Miriana had asked him to go to the shop and buy cabbage for her. While she was chopping up the cabbage, Miriana said, her husband told her that that was the way he would like to chop her up.

Miriana told him that she did not wish to return to their relationship, and he became upset. It seems as if he wanted to kill her, Miriana told her mother.

Miriana is having terrible pain in her fingers on the right hand, and the doctors are not certain if it will heal properly. They said that they are monitoring the hand for two days before they come to any conclusion as to whether she will be able to regain normal use of her hand.

After crying at the gate, the traumatized children did not say anything for a while, said Maria. Then they told her that they saw daddy stab mommy and how she covered her stomach with her hand, and how he then stabbed himself in the stomach, and there was blood everywhere.

Daddy then fell to the ground, the child told their grandmother, giving the impression that he was dead.

When their father fell, the little boy said he grabbed his sister’s hand and ran out of the house to the gate, which is where they were met by their grandmother, with whom they are now staying.