Housekeeper raped, murdered in Lord?s Bank

It was as gruesome and brutal a crime as we ever see in this country, perpetrated with the kind of cruelty more closely associated with Baghdad than the quiet community of Lord’s Bank. And to make matters worse, the depraved men who raped and murdered a young woman on Friday are still on the loose tonight. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods has the story.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Twenty-year-old Mara Noemi Garcia was the housekeeper for Floyd Brown and his family who reside in the Hollywood area of Lord?s Bank Village. On Friday, Garcia arrived the usual time around eight that morning and the Browns left for Belize City. Police believe that when Garcia went outside the residence a short time later, she was approached and hustled back inside the house by at least two unidentified men. Authorities say because the two-storey concrete building is situated in a secluded area and most neighbours were not home at the time, it would have been difficult for anyone to witness the incident.

Once inside the residence, police say Garcia was taken upstairs where she was first gang-raped then brutally killed. Mario Vernon, Head of the National Criminal Investigation Branch and lead investigator, in the case says they believe that Garcia was taken downstairs to a small sofa where she was forced to sit down and then interrogated about where the family had their valuables. Vernon says Garcia?s mouth was gagged with a torn T-shirt and both her hands and feet were tied with what appeared to be shoe laces. He theorized what Garcia?s last terrifying moments alive may have been like.

Sr. Supt. Mario Vernon, Lead Investigator
?She may have frustrated her attackers or was not cooperative, or simply did not know where the family kept their valuables. And so she was slit across the throat, and it was a deep swipe that almost took off the head.?

Garcia wore a blouse and short pants, but no underwear. The undergarment was found torn in the room where she was attacked. Though the crime was as vicious as they come, Vernon believes the killers were amateurs; petty hustlers who left plenty of evidence as they ransacked the premises.

Sr. Supt. Mario Vernon
?What is said to be missing from the home at this time are what would be attractive to a thief: a DVD player, a camera, some jewellery, some little bit of cash that people would keep within the home.?

?Whoever entered that house blundered a lot and I am saying that if they blundered so much inside that house, they will blunder on the outside also because they were not professionals.?

Despite Vernon?s theories, there is a widespread speculation that Friday?s crime was not an amateur robbery. Word on the street is that drugs may be involved or that a message is perhaps being sent to the deceased?s employer. But police continue to say they have no evidence to support those rumours and are treating the case as a random act of burglary that ended in a homicide.

Garcia?s body which was already showing signs of rigor-mortis was discovered by her employer when he returned home with his wife and two sons sometime after six that evening.

Sr. Supt. Mario Vernon
?What he noticed was that certain things were out on the veranda that should have been inside. Like carpets that should have been inside by that hour, after six o?clock, were still on the veranda outside. And when he got into his premises, he noticed that a key was in the burglar bar door to the lower flat and the wooden door was closed, but not locked. Upon entering he noticed also where things were still left untidy.?

Vernon says they have been able to establish that Garcia was killed with a sharp instrument they believe her killers took from the home. But he would not disclose exactly which weapon was used.

At the time of her murder, Garcia had worked for the Brown family for only three weeks. Today, Gabriela Garcia says it is unspeakable what happened to her only daughter whom she described as a quiet person who kept to herself.

Gabriela Garcia, Mother of Deceased
?I will always remember her because she was a decent girl. I hope the police take into custody the persons who did this and I want them to feel the way how someone feels when they go through something like this.?

Garcia moved to Belize nine years ago from Guatemala to try and give her children a better life. Today, she is seriously thinking of moving back. Ironically, Garcia is still recovering from a gunshot she received almost two years ago when a man held her up at her taco stand and shot her in the abdomen. Police do not believe the incidents are related. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.

Police say, based on evidence they have collected so far, they strongly believe that Garcia’s killers reside in neighbouring Ladyville Village.