14 year old dead, three sick in poisoning
A fourteen-year-old Belize City boy is dead in what appears to be a case of deliberate poisoning by an acquaintance. Elwin Flowers, a student of Anglican Cathedral College and resident of the Lake Independence area, complained to his mother of stomach pains on Saturday night, and by Sunday his condition had worsened.
Muriel Jones, Mother of Deceased
“The Sunday morning I woke up and I went into his room, I noticed that he smelled bad. I asked him what was the matter and he didn’t answer. I asked again and he didn’t answer. We shook him, asking him what was the matter and he still did not answer. When I looked on his pants, it was messed up with stool, stool, stool. Vomit was coming through his nose like water. I woke him up and his bigger brother told him to go and bathe, and asked him what he drank. All he said was two Guinness that they opened and gave him.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Where did he get the Guinness from?”
Muriel Jones
“Some young man gave him the Guinness.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Did he see when it was actually opened and handed to him?”
Muriel Jones
“He didn’t see when the man opened it. All he know is they just handed him the Guinness and said, “Elwin, hold ya.” That’s what he told me, the doctor, the nurses, everybody.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Do you know this young man? Is he a friend?”
Muriel Jones
“He’s a friend. Sometimes when he comes from San Pedro he would stay here with us and he and the kids would go all about.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“You said he made a threat to you?”
Muriel Jones
“Yes. He made a threat to us because he had a CD player that lost one of the CD’s disks. He told us that it was my daughter that took it. She told him over and over that it was not her and he said that he was not running a joke, because he got tired and that he is going to poison us one by one.”
Jones says she feels that the Guinness was not intended for Elwin, but for her eldest son.
Muriel Jones
“The Guinness wasn’t meant for this one, it was meant for the bigger one. The bigger one said the same young man opened one and was actually forcing it on him. He told him he didn’t want it, so he took it and gave it to the other one.”
“I went to work, opened my restaurant on Vernon Street. After that I went back to the hospital. When I got there he didn’t have on any clothes. The doctor said he took off his clothes and was trying to climb up the wall.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“Did the doctor say what was wrong at that time or what they felt?”
Muriel Jones
“All the doctor said was they felt it was drugs. Someone put something in it and it was very strong.”
Flowers’ autopsy was done this afternoon and the results are expected to be released by police tomorrow. Meanwhile, sources say three other students of the neighbourhood, twelve year old Alex Baptist, thirteen year old Ashley Smith and fourteen year old Kurt Grinage, also drank the tainted stout. Hospital authorities say all three children are listed in a satisfactory condition. Police are looking for one Leroy Ramclam, the man Muriel Jones says poisoned her son.
