Gales Point murder victim dumped in lagoon
While Belize is certainly no stranger to violent crime, the grisly murder discovered yesterday in Gales Point was unusual, both in its location and nationality of its victim: a frequent visitor from the United States. Today, News 5’s Jacqueline Woods visited the gruesome scene in search of answers.
Elaine Perez, Friend
“Suppose it was somebody that just come and go, but its somebody like a sister you know; that’s why it hurts.”
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The body identified as Jovanna Poe, an American national from New Mexico, was found floating in the lagoon about quarter a mile away from Gales Point Village. The body, which was nude, was wrapped in a sheet, securely tied with a rope, and anchored to a cement block. Poe, a frequent visitor to the village, stayed at the Perez’s Bed and Breakfast and worked closely with the family helping them to develop the business. She also owned a piece of land that the family apparently helped her to keep clean.
Elaine Perez
“All I know, this lady deal with us for years. I am the one cook, wash, and feed her, so I don’t know.”
It’s not clear what transpired between Thursday night and Friday morning, but Poe’s kayak was found on the other side of the lagoon with a paddle onboard.
Elaine Perez
“I didn’t suspect something was really wrong at the first, because she’s a lady that picks up her canoe and she go paddling around the village. And that morning, I said, “Perez, weh Jovanna gone so early?” because the bus was coming. So I tell he, maybe she will come back for nine o’clock. Nine, didn’t come; ten, didn’t come, she didn’t come.”
“Well it’s only last night I heard that the kayak found down yonder on the beachside, but not on the beach, turned down up that side. I don’t know how it get there, I wish I knew.”
Perez says her family, including her husband and two sons, started looking for Poe. But it was not until after they alerted the police and a search conducted that the authorities made the gruesome discovery. It’s not sure what police found in their preliminary investigation, but on Tuesday evening they detained twenty-five year old Leon Perez, thirty-one year old Francisco Perez, and seventy-five year old Mariano Perez for questioning. Today, the police took the brothers to the banks of the rocky point area where the body was taken after it was retrieved from the water.
Francisco Perez, Detained for questioning
“If I was involved in the murder? Of course not, no. We volunteered to come and search for her because after when she leave we were worried. So we decided to come and search for her after she was missing a couple of days.”
Francisco Perez says based on a conversation Poe had with his mother, he believes she left early that morning in her kayak but he cannot say what happened to her along the way.
Francisco Perez
“She spoke to my mom and said that she was going for a last canoe before she leave in the morning. She was going out for a final canoeing.”
“Well it’s hard for me to tell, I really don’t know. It happen so acute and so sudden it kinda left me still off balance. But I don’t know who could possibly done something like this.”
Sources, however, told News 5 that police found bloodstains at the foot of Poe’s bed. The findings suggest that she may have been killed in the house and her body transported in the kayak into the lagoon. The police on the scene would not talk to us about their ongoing investigation. This afternoon, pathologist Doctor Mario Estradabran, along with a team of police officers, headed out to the scene to collect whatever evidence they could find and do a post-mortem examination on site. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
Officers from the U.S. Embassy were also in Gales Point today documenting the murder scene.
