Cayo woman is latest murder victim

Belize City may have a reputation as the nation’s violent crime capital but a look at recent killings in Corozal, Orange Walk, Dangriga, San Pedro, Benque Viejo and other far flung locations demonstrates that the nation’s murder epidemic is not tied to any single location. News 5’s Patrick Jones reports from Santa Elena, Cayo, on the latest fatality.

Patrick Jones, Reporting
A grieving mother…consoled by one of her equally distraught daughters…trying to make sense of the brutal murder of her eldest child over the weekend.

Acting Officer in Charge of San Ignacio Police, Assistant Superintendent Godfrey Smith and his team of investigators have been on the case since Saturday.

Asst. Supt. Godfrey Smith, O.I.C., San Ignacio Police
?On Saturday the eight of January at two ten pm we received an information about a body in an orange orchard east of Novelo?s Convention centre in Santa Elena. The police visited the area and about fifty yards off the road, in the orange orchard there was a young female lying there, apparently dead; half nude.?

The body was that of twenty-one year old Yesenia Vasquez de la Rosa. She reportedly left for work early on Saturday morning, and was not scheduled to be gone all day.

Patrick Jones
?But when Ysenia did not arrive home as expected shortly after midday, the family grew worried. Zoila Vasquez de la Rosa says she convinced her husband to go looking for their daughter. Two hours later a parent?s worst nightmare became reality in this bushy area not far from the family home.?

Zoila Vasquez de la Rosa, Mother of the Deceased
?My daughter left at seven thirty from the house on her way to work. She was to collect her pay and up to twelve thirty she had still not returned home. At twenty to one I became very worried. I told my husband, that my daughter had still not come home. So we drove to her work place to look for her but when we got there, we asked the boss if Yesenia had come by, and she told me that she had already left. I got back into the car, and I told my husband that something must have happened to her.?

Asst. Supt. Godfrey Smith
?We do not have a main suspect, but we are investigating because do not know who did that act. According to the parents she worked with a gas company and she go and collect her salary and by a little after twelve she would reach home. But around two o?clock when she did not reach home caused the alarm. And someone was passing at the area and heard a screaming and when this person heard about this young lady not reach home, he give the word that someone was screaming in that location. So a search party started in that area, hence the body was found there.?

Patrick Jones
?Who found the body, was it the parents??

Asst. Supt. Godfrey Smith
?The parents, yes, along with some of her friends.?

Police believe that the young woman was robbed, raped and murdered and the family believes that Yesenia knew her killer.

Zoila Vasquez de la Rosa
?The only thing I can say is that whoever did this to my daughter, was someone she knew, because if she didn?t know him, they would have just stolen the money or raped her. But because she knew who it was, they killed her.?

?I want the police to catch them, and for them to pay for what they did. They should not stop looking for those who are responsible.?

While News 5 spoke with the grieving mother, other family members and friends watched as police rounded up the suspects believed to have attacked and killed Yesenia. One person was taken into custody on Saturday, but police are still asking for the public?s assistance in putting all of the pieces together to catch the killer.

Asst. Supt. Godfrey Smith
?So far we suspect that she was strangled because there are bruises around the neck. That?s all we could say right now until after the post mortem is conducted.?

Patrick Jones
?Now this young lady, twenty one years, what would she be doing in an orange orchard?

Asst. Supt. Godfrey Smith
?Well we don?t know. All I know that she left the gas company with her salary and she was going home. What she was doing there, or how she got there we cannot answer that at this time.?

Patrick Jones
?And her salary, did you find her salary on her person??

Asst. Supt. Godfrey Smith
?No, no money was found on her.?

Zoila Vasquez de la Rosa
?My daughter was a quiet person. She would never back talk to me whenever I would scold her or tell her to do something around the house.?

Patrick Jones, for News 5.

The funeral of Ysenia Vasquez will take place Tuesday in Santa Elena.