Suspect detained in Libertad murder
Police have moved quickly in the wake of the grizzly murder of a teenaged girl in Libertad Village. News 5’s Patrick Jones has just returned from the scene with a story describing the grief on the part of the family mixed with at least a measure of relief that a suspect is in custody.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
Sixteen-year-old Elia Elena Gonzalez left home for classes at Corozal Community College around 6:45 on Tuesday morning. And that was the last time her parents would see her alive. According to her father, Mario Gonzalez, when Elia did not return home at the scheduled time, between 4:30 and 5:30 that evening, he knew that something wasn’t quite right.
Mario Gonzalez
“When me and my wife left home at that time, my daughter had already arrived, because I did my investigation. I asked some students, and they said classed were finished at 2:30. She went to buy at a nearby shop. According to a friend of hers, she came off the bust at Concepcion at 3:30.”
That sighting of Gonzalez alighting the bus at the roadside in Conception has been confirmed by at least one other person who saw her walking down this dirt road, a popular short cut to the village.
Patrick Jones
“After combing through nearby cane fields for hours family and friends who organized search teams made the gruesome discovery here in this vacant lot situated between Concepcion and Libertad villages on Wednesday afternoon.”
She was still clothed in her school uniform, her knapsack with books still on her back. Her hands were tied with her shoestrings and there was cloth in her mouth. According to Corozal police, preliminary forensic evidence suggests that Elia fought her attacker to the very end. While the police believe they have the murderer in custody, they are operating on the theory that he did not act alone. The cause of death has been listed as manual strangulation and the pathologist has confirmed that she was raped. News 5 understands that the primary suspect, Kenneth “Bendigo” Williams, has several scratches on his face, hands, and back. But the big break in the case for police came when Williams reportedly sold a ring, worn by Elia, to the sister of one of the people in the search party. The father of the victim says her death has hit the family especially hard.
Mario Gonzalez
“Yes it’s very hard. I didn’t expect this to happen. If I had been there earlier I would have picked up my daughter, but I got there about 4:3. By that time I think she was already dead.”
“It’s affecting my wife most of all. About two months ago she had to undergo an operation to have a baby, and it’s affecting all of us in the family. I try not to cry so I could be there for my wife, but all I feel is to scream and cry.”
But the family are not the only ones mourning the girl whose life was cut violently short. Luciola West, who taught her most of her primary school life, says the teen’s death is a loss to the entire village.
Luciola West
“Our community today is mourning because those people have been living here from the children were small. And today our community has lost a loving child, a very good example, a role model to her school, because she was always loving, never fighting, always loving the children around her.”
West says that because of her dedication to her studies, Gonzales, seen here in this video from 2002 when she represented her school in the National Drug Quiz Contest, won a scholarship to attend the Corozal Community College.
Luciola West
“Elia in her first year of school at C.C.C. was an honour student and she devotes a lot of her time to studying. However, the financial support that her parents could give her is limited so she started to work on weekends at the free zone when it was announced to her that the scholarship would have to be withdrawn because it was mostly only for the first children that started the scholarship programme.”
Even with the added burden of weekend work, West says Elia kept up her studies. Now, as the family prepares to lay her to rest the question an entire community is left asking is why anyone would want to take the life of such a humble and loving person. Patrick Jones, for News 5.
Late this evening, Police informed News 5 that an I.D. parade was conducted in Corozal and Williams was positively identified as the man who sold Elia’s ring to a resident of Concepcion village for five dollars. He is expected to be charged with murder on Friday. Elia Gonzalez will be laid to rest on Friday afternoon following funeral services at the Libertad Evangelical Church of Christ. Police would like to thank the residents of Libertad and Concepcion villages for their strong support and cooperation in their investigation. News 5 would like to thank Lionel Logan for his assistance in covering this story.
