Pregnant 18-year-old murdered in Dangriga
It was another murderous weekend in a nation that appears to be blessed with abundant natural beauty and cursed with a corresponding amount of inhumanity among its inhabitants. The latest outrage took place in the once peaceful town of Dangriga. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods has the details.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Eighteen-year-old Melissa Swazo was eight months pregnant, but that did not stop her attacker from raping and killing the mother-to-be and her unborn child.
Marie Tzul, Aunt of Deceased
“Everybody in Dangriga know Mel, because she walks the streets. And she doesn?t go around hampering people or anything. Every time you see Mel it?s like, ?weh di goh on? Drop a lee dalla? you know, so everybody know Mel. So I don?t see how somebody could have even brought the thought to their heart to do something so drastic to Mel, especially her baby. Think about the fact about the baby alone and not even thinking about the mother at this time, but the baby who hasn?t even conceive yet. So I think that the person who does this to Mel the alleged person, I think that person should be hanged.”
Police investigations reveal that shortly after Swazo returned home from socializing after two on Saturday morning, she was attacked by someone authorities believed had followed her home. It’s not certain if she was sexually assaulted inside the house, but Swazo, clad only in a sports bra, managed to run outside and through a neighbour?s yard before she fell. It is then that she was fatally attacked. According to her friends, there is no way Swazo would have gone down without a fight.
Nisani Laurie, Friend of the Deceased
“She is very strong and she must ih mi the tackle with that person, and so she must ih dig that person and stuff like that because her mother say bruises is on her and her neck look bruk her mother says, so all of that is struggling. Because it?s not one person, I say it?s not because she?s in the sand and maybe what I said, she was running from that person and maybe she fell because a pregnant person cannot lay on their belly, it?s impossible, cannot lay on their belly. So she must ih drop and dah so they must choke ah back-way and all ah that, because they find little evidence around her, her slippers, and stuff like that while she was running and footprints all up in the yard.”
It is at this spot that the neighbour found the young woman’s body lying face down in the sand. The family says they are upset that no one came to the aid of their sister because they know she screamed for help.
Marie Tzul
“If somebody the scream come out and see, noh care if dah the man, noh care dah what, just come out and see and try to help because that?s what happened in this situation. They thought it was one of the usual domestic things, and that?s what cause this to prolong, because maybe we could have saved the baby.”
Suceli Swazo, Sister of the Deceased
“We are trying to cope with it, but as far as we are concerned, we are not satisfied with the way our sister died and we want justice, we just don?t want it to go like that. Because this is not the first time people rape and kill. I believe–I strongly believe that if they implement the law back to start hanging, I think we will get more justice.”
Dangriga police say they have detained five persons, but will likely bring charges against only two of the young men they have in custody.
Jacqueline Woods
“Now the two persons you have detained, do the police have any strong evidence linking them to the crime??
Sgt. Pablo Pinkney, Lead Investigator, Swazo Case
?Not as yet. We are interrogating them, they have offered certain, not evidence I would say, but certain information in regards to the whereabouts to the woman, at least on the last moments she was seen alive.”
Police say until they receive the results of the post-mortem they cannot say whether or not Swazo was raped. At this time they also have no motive for the killing.
Jacqueline Woods
“Now because Melissa was eight months pregnant, is the police treating this case as double homicide??
Sgt. Pablo Pinkney
?Yes, once it can be proven by the professionals in that field that the baby was capable of borning alive, definitely it is a double a murder.”
The baby’s expected due date was the first week of July. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
Dangriga police tell News 5 they are still looking for another suspect.
