Woman Knifed to Death On Caye Caulker; Did She Know Her Killer?
Jennifer Coleman
A person is in police custody tonight following the stabbing murder of a woman on Caye Caulker. Fifty-one year old Jennifer Coleman was injured once to the neck, believed to be with a knife, inside her home on Aventurera Street on the island. Coleman, it is known, suffered from depression and while police are not saying it is a case of domestic dispute, they’re of the view that Coleman may have been involved in a relationship with her killer. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Voice of: Neighbor
“It was horrible I couldn’t stop shaking, I couldn’t sleep. I haven’t slept any at all. She went in my room and I saw her and I saw blood so I couldn’t sleep at all.”
Duane Moody, Reporting
It’s not often that homicides occur at La Isla Cariñosa, but on Tuesday night, a heinous murder occurred at an apartment complex on Aventurera Street that has shocked the residents on the island of Caye Caulker. Around eleven-thirty p.m., fifty-one year old Jennifer Coleman, an unemployed domestic, was inside her room, situated to the back of the building, when she was stabbed in the neck. It is believed to have been committed by someone she invited into the room. After being stabbed, Coleman ran to her neighbor for help, blood gushing from her neck.
Voice of: Neighbor (Translated)
“About eleven-thirty, I was in my bed; my husband that lives with me and my sister we were about to go to sleep and my door was open when I saw the lady pass my door. She only did about two steps past my door and entered into my apartment. When she got in, I noticed that she was covered in blood—she had a hand on the injury and she pointed towards her room with the other hand. But we couldn’t understand what she was trying to say because we only saw the blood, but we didn’t know where it was coming from. We asked her what? What? In Spanish, but she speaks English. She then removed her hand from the injury and it was a wound like a big circle on her neck and it was spraying blood. When that happened, we jumped off the bed and we came outside. My husband ran to the police station and I came out shouting for help from the neighbors.”
Coleman followed her neighbors on to the street where she collapsed and hemorrhaged. Police arrived at the scene shortly after and rushed her to the polyclinic on the island some two blocks away, but she was pronounced dead on arrival.
Henry Jemott
ASP Henry Jemott, Deputy Coastal Executive Officer
“At about eleven-fifty, police was called out to a street south of the island where it was explained that a female was lying face down in a pool of blood. Police responded and found the female in the said position. Because our primary motive is to save life, she was picked up and rushed to the polyclinic; upon arrival she was pronounced dead by the doctor there. Initial report into the matter is that she was at her room and someone either entered and caused the injuries to her. She tried to escape from the person, heading towards the front of the establishment to get help.”
Police currently have one person detained for questioning—a man who frequented the apartment and who, residents say was her boyfriend. But while the elderly man was seen entering Coleman’s apartment early that night, he reportedly left almost half an hour before she was mortally wounded. It is believed that another person, inside the apartment, inflicted the deadly wound.
ASP Henry Jemott
“At this point, we don’t have a motive as yet and we would not like to speculate on the investigation because it is in its infant stage.”
Duane Moody
“Now sir, we understand that she was stabbed multiple times; can you talk to us about that. And has a murder weapon been recovered?”
ASP Henry Jemott
“We have recovered a knife; we are not certain if that is the murder weapon. At this time, we have the scenes of crime processing the scene properly and whatsoever evidence or any other tool that is found that we think could have been used in the author of this crime will be sent to the lab and tested. We know that she was stabbed to the neck and that may have caused her demise. More or likely it was someone who had access to the room or had entered the room before…we are suspecting.”
But did residents in the area see or hear anyone leaving, following the incident?
Voice of: Neighbor
“Nothing at all, we noh even hear any noise or nothing at all. We just notice what happen because she gone ina my room.”
Duane Moody
“Did you see anybody leave the compound, walk out of the yard?”
Voice of: Neighbor
“No, we didn’t see anything at all. Just her because she gone into my room because nobody noticed anything about it. It didn’t make any noise at all.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
Police are looking for another person, who is also a suspect in this latest homicide.
