Murder Count Climbs Near 40; March Explosion Fuelled It

News Five’s count of murders since the start of 2017 shows an increase over the same period last year. Thirty-nine murders have been reported up to today, compared to thirty-four at this time last year. January started with four murders in three days, but only nine incidents were reported compared to thirteen last year. In February, ten murders were reported, a slight rise from 2016’s count of eight. But the killer month was March, with the end-of-month spree of eight murders in less than forty-eight hours propelling the total to eighteen for the month, higher than the thirteen reported in 2016.  So far only one murder has been reported in April to date. Two of the victims of murder have gone unidentified, both in the Cayo District: a man alleged to have killed murder victim Alvaro Aldana, and a female found hacked to pieces in a bag on the Belize River near Blackman Eddy village. Belize City and particularly the Southside remain the hotspot for murders, but lately the spree has shifted west to Cayo, where five of March’s murders were reported, from Teakettle to San Ignacio.  These figures are according to News Five’s records.