Manhunt on for killers of Ladyville woman

It was the kind of murder that is exceedingly rare and particularly disturbing. Not a gangbang, no lover’s quarrel, not even a hold-up in which the victim fights back and the gunman shoots in panic. The killing that took place Thursday afternoon at the Old Well Road in Ladyville was a simple act of unspeakable cruelty against a defenceless pregnant woman.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
It was here, in one of the bedrooms, that twenty-four year old Eldon Chiac found his pregnant common-law wife twenty year old Cruz Sho lying face down. Sho’s hands were tied with her white undershirt and the killers used a piece of this wire to bind the young woman’s feet. Sho, who was naked from the waist down, is also believed to have been raped.

Eldon Chiac, Sho’s Common-law Husband
“When I reached there, I loose her hand because it was so tight. I thought maybe she was still alive, but when I see her throat it was full of blood.”

The couple’s blood soaked mattress and pillow suggest that Sho’s throat was slashed while she was on the bed, but it is believed that during her struggle she fell to the ground. Chiac says he left the house at two-forty-five on Thursday afternoon and he was aware that Sho would have left shortly to shop at a nearby store. Chiac says because the house had been broken into several times, Sho was very careful and always made sure the building was secured. He believes the killers had been watching the house and after Sho stepped out the front door she was ambushed and forced back inside the house where she was taken to the back bedroom and murdered.

Eldon Chiac
“They wait until she came out outside and then they attacked her because she mi going dah shop to buy. And they went inside and they thief what they want, they scatter everything inside the house, and from then they tied her up and then they killed her.”

“And I tell her she must always keep the door closed and whenever she come outside, mek she watch first through the window.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“And she was leaving to go to the store.”

Eldon Chiac
“The store by El Cas to buy something so she could cook in the evening.”

The time marked on this clock that dropped from the wall as the house was ransacked, indicates that the killers were still inside at four thirty-six that evening. It was around this time that a student who resides with the couple came home, but the young man quickly left after seeing the mess and hearing strange noises coming from inside one of the rooms.

Eldon Chiac
“I don’t actually know if she was crying or if she was trying to breathe, but I think it was her throat that was making noise, trying to breathe. He didn’t went in there because he said that he fraid that somebody would have attacked him inside again and do him the same thing.”

The killers, who gained access to the isolated property from the back of the compound, went through all the rooms stealing a number of items including nine hundred U.S dollars that the couple had saved. Chiac believes Sho was killed because she could identify her murderers.

Eldon Chiac
“There was a struggle and I think that’s why they tied her up. She was struggling I think.”

However people in the area told police that around the same time the crime occurred they recall seeing three young men of dark complexion running away. That information led authorities to one of the suspect’s house situated in neighbouring Lord’s Bank Village where a bag containing evidence was found.

Eldon Chiac
“They gone with lots of things. They gone with some army boots, two pair of army boots and clothes, tennis. … They stole the headlight and the police went into a house, they find a plastic bag there and they bring it and I identified the headlight. It was mine.”

But the police have been unable to locate their prime suspects, who are believed to be residents of Lords Bank Village and Belize City. Chiac, however, remains confident that Sho’s killers will be found because a driver, who just happened to be in the area at the time, also saw three young men acting suspiciously.

Eldon Chiac
“They haven’t detained them, but they know who do it. They possibly know who do it because some eyewitnesses see them and know them very good. When we came we noticed a vehicle parked at the back, so we went along with the police and he said he saw three people run and he identified them.”

Chiac, who is a bus driver, says Sho was three and half months pregnant. He says they had only moved into the area two weeks ago from Belize City and were looking forward to the birth of their first child.

Eldon Chiac
“Very calm, quiet, she does not like to go out; she likes to stay home. She did everything she could inside; I work no problem.”

Cruz Sho is expected to be laid to rest sometime over the weekend. Jacqueline Godwin for News Five.

In 2005 there was a similar home invasion in Lord’s Bank in which twenty year old Mara Garcia was raped, mutilated, and murdered. Two teenagers were arrested and charged and await trial in Hattieville Prison. At the time of the arrest police told the press that the suspects were part of a larger criminal gang of at least eight youths operating in the Ladyville area.