BELIZE CITY, Thurs. July 30, 2015–At press time tonight, police are still seeking Ulysses Manuel Mayorga, 25, a Honduran whom, they told the media at a press conference held yesterday, Wednesday, in Belize City, they need to question with regards to the bloody murder of a 21-year-old woman with whom he had previously been living, and whom he was visiting at the time of her death.

The murdered woman, Merlin Elizabeth Herrera Mejia, 21, a Salvadoran, lost her life as a result of what is suspected to be domestic violence, almost three weeks after Customs officer Keisha Buller, 25, of Benque Viejo Del Carmen, was brutally murdered, allegedly by her abusive ex-common-law husband, who stabbed her about 10 times in front of her grandmother and her 4-year-old child from a previous relationship, police reports said.

Early yesterday morning, Wednesday, Mejia bled to death in the room of her rented apartment on Morning Glory Street, in the Trenchtown area of the city, after her throat had been slashed and she had been stabbed in the neck.

Mejia, a domestic worker, was found dead at about 6:00 Wednesday morning by her landlady who went to check on her after she heard noise and commotion coming out of the apartment at about 12:30 this morning.

The landlady, who lives in the upper flat of the two-flat apartment, told Amandala on Wednesday that at about 12:30 that morning, she heard an argument taking place in the lower flat, and after that, there was a muffled sound, and then silence. She had not thought much of it, she said, and at about 6:00, she went down to check on her tenant, Mejia.

She knocked on the door, but there was no response. The landlady found that the door was not locked, however, so she pushed in the door, and to her horror, saw the body of the girl on the floor, covered with blood.

The landlady immediately called 911, and when police went to the apartment, they saw Mejia dead on the floor, covered with blood, and with a slashed throat.

Police took the body to the morgue at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.

Inspector Alejandro Cowo, Commander of Crimes Investigation of Belize City South Side, said that at about 7:00 Wednesday morning, they went to the apartment, where they saw the body of a woman who was later identified to be Merlin Elizabeth Herrera Mejia, 21, a Salvadoran who worked as a house cleaner. Inspector Cowo reported that they saw two large cut wounds on her neck, and one behind her left ear.

Police suspect that the violence that claimed the young woman’s life was due to a family dispute, and they are seeking her ex-common-law husband for questioning.

Police said that the two had been living together, but had separated. Mejia went to live in the Morning Glory apartment, and was frequently visited by her boyfriend, who, reports allege, is an alcoholic.

Reports to Amandala are that Mejia had a son, 4 years old, who may have been in the apartment with her when the attack occurred, but was not found when the landlady found her body the following morning.

In an interview Wednesday morning on Morning Glory Street, Mejia’s mother told reporters that shortly after midnight, at about 12:30 that Wednesday morning, she was at home sleeping when she got a call from her daughter’s boyfriend, who said that Mejia was at home drunk, and asked if he could take her son to her (Mejia’s mother).

Mejia’s mother said that she told him yes, to bring the child, but she went back to sleep and so cannot say if he brought the child, or not. She does not know whether her daughter was killed by her boyfriend, or what happened in the room that night.

The landlady, for her part, told Amandala that Mejia had been living in the apartment for only a week, and she came along with her son, and told her that she was alone, but had not mentioned that she was moving away from an abuser.

In response to a question from the media on what is being done by police to address the increased murders and violence against women, Superintendent Alden Dawson, Deputy Commander of the Southside Belize City formation, said the situation is being monitored and that the Women’s Department is taking steps to address the troubling issue.

Meanwhile, police say that they have issued an all-points bulletin for Mayorga’s arrest.