Dangriga Teacher’s Throat Slashed at Home in Belize City

Desmond Lewis

Overnight, there has been a pair of unrelated homicides to add to the mounting body count going into the final days of 2017.  A well-known and respected high school teacher has lost his life in a predawn act of butchery in Belize City, while a popular barber and businessman was gunned down inside his vehicle in the Hattieville community.  We begin our newscast tonight with coverage of a grisly incident during which the secondary school instructor’s throat was slashed inside a home in the Collet neighborhood.  News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

The body of a secondary school teacher was carted away in the early hours of this morning by police officers responding to the scene of a fatal knife attack inside this home on Maureen Leslie Street.  By ten a.m., another team of investigators was on the ground canvassing the perimeter, combing for evidence that may lead to the apprehension of an unknown killer.  Thirty-five-year-old Desmond Lewis had only just arrived at a friend’s home from Dangriga on Wednesday evening and was reportedly in the company of a male friend when their rendezvous turned violent.

Voice of: Zenaida Castro, Friend of Deceased

“We celebrated the Christmas together because I went down there on Saturday and was supposed to come up after the new year.  But yesterday he told me, well he had plans that he wanted to come to the city for a couple days and he left from there with a friend, approximately like 4:10 [p.m.] and said, “Z ah gwein”  Ah tell ahn, “Okay D, safe trip.”

That would be the last occasion during which they would see each other in Dangriga, as Desmond, an educator at Independence High School, would soon leave for Belize City to spend a few days at Zenaida Castro’s home off Antelope Street Extension.

Voice of: Zenaida Castro

“Ih gaan and ih gaan with wahn smile pan ih face.  Ih seh, well aright Z, ih seh I wah sih yoh when ih come back Friday.  Until this morning after three, my neighbor called me and give me that bad news that dehn kill ahn insideah my house.  And ih really shocking because he always cohn da my house and he, anybody could tell yoh he always safe ya.”

It is apparent that Lewis had been accosted by someone he knew.

Isani Cayetano

“Does it cross your mind, perhaps, that the person who Desmond was last [seen] with  may have been involved or [was] in the house at the time of this incident?  What are your thoughts?”

Voice of: Zenaida Castro

“Hmm, well dat da common sense because then nobody cyant get eena da house how dehn want, cause as you sih how my house deh, so obviously ih had to have da person in there with him, you know.  Well I noh sih how di house look yet but ih had to have the person in there with ahn.”

The deadly encounter took place inside the single bedroom where his throat was slashed and he was stabbed once to the upper chest.  His lifestyle or sexual preference has led to questions regarding the motive of Lewis’ murder.

Isani Cayetano

“I know it is uncomfortable for people to open up about sexuality.  Can you speak to us about this particular incident, perhaps in the context of who Mr. Lewis was?”

Voice of: Zenaida Castro

“He had his own personal life, that’s all I could say.  He had his own personal life, you know, and each to its own.  That’s all I could say.”

Isani Cayetano

“There is a rumor, I don’t know if this has been substantiated elsewhere, but it is being said that Mr. Lewis was discovered wearing female undergarments.  Have you heard anything to that sort?”

Voice of: Zenaida Castro

“I heard, but I don’t know.”

What is known is that he exsanguinated, or bled to death, from grave injuries to the neck and upper body.  The narrow slit between the two mattresses inside the tiny sleeping quarters reveals the massive loss of blood.

Isani Cayetano

“What are the police telling you?  After all, it’s your residence in which this unfortunate incident took place.  What have you learned from the officers investigating?”

Voice of: Zenaida Castro

“They’re not saying much you know, they’re really not saying much.  Only like this morning, I spoke to one and he said that they killed him in the house and I need to get to get to one of his relatives so that they can know what happened to him.”

Despite not saying much, investigators were busy searching for clues, turning their attention at one point, to an apartment building next door where traces of blood were said to have been detected near the front entrance.  Its occupants were briefly detained and interrogated before being released.  Lewis’ murder, at least in the public’s eye, is either the result of a hate crime or a crime of passion.

Voice of: Zenaida Castro

“I think when people judge people they need to watch and see and remember that you have family, you have friends, you have kids or if you noh have kids, you noh know what the future wahn bring and mek God judge and you noh do di judging.  And if you neva like weh di happen then just walk weh.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.