Francine Pitts dies; survived loss of daughter Eyannie Nunez and City house
Belize City resident Francine Pitts gained public attention when her young daughter, Eyannie, was shot and killed as she slept at home. Pitts would go on to experience a long list of setbacks and misfortunes that instead of breaking her, only had the effect of strengthening her resolve. But this weekend, death knocked at her door and she passed while visiting her son in Mahogany Heights. Tonight, News Five’s Duane Moody revisits Pitt’s troubled life.
Duane Moody, Reporting
A mother, a caregiver, a wife, a daughter and a friend…Francine Pitts was loved by many, but on Sunday afternoon, she passed away at theWesternRegionalHospitalafter experiencing breathing complications. Pitts was visiting with relatives and friends in the Mahogany Heights Community when she fell ill; within minutes she was rushed to the hospital, but perished despite efforts to resuscitate her.
Michael Dyer, Common-Law Husband of Deceased
Michael Dyer
“She went to go and see her son over at Mahogany Heights because he has been living there for a while; he is kinda paralyzed. And everything went good; we had a very good evening and a good day. I think something kinda bothered her that she didn’t like, but she didn’t express it to me. But then she felt like she wanted to asthma and stuff like that. She had her medication but it started to get a little worse where she said that she was feeling congested and a bit tight. We requested the ambulance to come and they took long so I took her in the vehicle to Belmopan. The distance was too long for the time span that had passed on her when she started to have breathing problems. The ambulance met us right outside of Belmopan, which was unfortunate, but that’s another story. She went to the hospital; she still had a pulse. They tried their best to deal with her medically, but unfortunately I think God had another answer for all of us.”
While she lived a modest life with her children as an employee at the Belize City Council, Francine overcame a series of adversities. Her first and most painful for any mother was the loss of her baby to gun violence seven years ago. On September twelfth 2010, her youngest daughter, eight-year-old Eyannie Nunez was murdered when a bullet penetrated the walls of theirZericote Streethouse and killed the minor as she slept in her bed.
Francine Pitts, Mother of Murder Victim [File: September 14th, 2010]
“I would like to ask the person who took Eyannie away from me do they have an eight year old daughter or son, a sister or a brother that is her age? If yes, would you want anyone to chance them out of their life helplessly while sleeping?”
“The first that I saw was on the bed foot was Eyannie so that’s when I grabbed Eyannie but when I lift her up I felt warmness, like she peed herself. So I said baby the gunshot got you, I say “you pee yourself sweety?” So I went and put her on her bed to try to change her. I said “mommy’s gonna change you baby and everything’s gonna be ok. So that’s when I, when I turned on the light now that’s when I knew that she got shot. I see blood start to pouring out her and I just got weak and fell on the floor with her.”
A month later, on October thirteenth, yet another misfortune would befall Pitts and her family. The wooden structure they called home, and the scene of Eyannie’s murder, was burned to the ground in a case of arson.
Francine Pitts [File: October 13th, 2010]
“I was trying to restore the house by buying lumber, doors, windows and I put them all inside noh. All that have gone out of my personal money that I have saved which I would have done in December but due to that [shooting incident] I was trying to make a comeback, pick up the pieces. Now it’s all gone.”
Francine Pitts [File: September 14th, 2010]
“They sent a threat that they were going to burn out the house. When they came I sent message to the same person that bring the message to me, not to me actually, to my cousin that live upstairs and I told them, told him to tell them that I have nothing to do with what they’re talking about, that my brother no longer live here.”
But despite facing a series of misfortunes, Pitts turned to church and lived her life with her common-law-husband Michael Dyer.
Michael Dyer
“She’s a wonderful persons. Excellent mother, excellent wife; genuine person. I think that all who had known her, met her, she was a person that light up every room that she went in. she was never a bad minded person. She followed in the footstep what God wanted; she was a forgiving person. She accepted ups and downs of life, but she never had any grievance with anybody.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
