San Pedranos/Belizeans Protest Outside Court

While the bail hearing was taking place before Judge Denis Hanomansingh, outside the Supreme Court, a group assembled to protest against David and Anke Doehm.  The group travelled to the City from San Pedro where the Doehms lived and where Faye Lin was found dead. Residents of the island are both saddened and enraged and believe Faye Lin’s death could have been averted. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Kera Garbutt, Ladyville Resident

“If they come out today, they gwen. And the Belizean people know that, the police dehn know that, the politicians they know that, the judge know that. Murder they supposed to get charged for. Cruelty – they make I feel like this baby still alive; this baby noh exist anymore.”

Duane Moody, Reporting

Although permission was denied by the police for residents, primarily San Pedranos, to protest against the bail hearing for David and Anke Doehm in front of the Supreme Court, a small group of persons gathered inside the Battlefield Park in downtown Belize City to express their outrage. The message was clear – they were asking for bail to be denied to the Doehms, who are suspects in the death of their adopted daughter. Shelly Arceo Hubert, who organized several protests on the island in the wake of the child’s death, says she’s hurt because she comes from a family of adopted children; even her daughter is adopted.  And she is disturbed by the abuse that thirteen-year-old Faye Lin Cannon was subjected to, allegedly at the hands of her adoptive parents, the Doehms.

Shelly Arceo Hubert

Shelly Arceo Hubert, San Pedro Resident

“We are out here because we have seen what has happened. We saw and not only myself, a group of people and we got together and everybody individually started to do their investigation and it fell on deaf ears. And it’s a shame. For a whole year, I was seeing what was happening and I called the authorities and I don’t know…it fall on deaf ears. I heard that there’s a few reports so obviously somebody report it and they wrote it down. But we are here at this point….we should be in this park; the children, our parents or whoever was concerned walking around with these children, holding their hands and telling them how much you love them because that is what an adoptive parent does with a child.”

Ladyville resident Kera Garbutt also came out in support. She’s disappointed in the turnout.

Kera Garbutt

Kera Garbutt

“I decided to come out today because I want justice. Not only for Faye, but justice for all Belizeans that were killed coldblooded and no one never received justice that they needed. I came out here expecting people to be out here. Look around us, only a few of us are out here right now. Where are the rest of the Belizean people? This is affecting all of us; me you, our kids, our future kids, our grandkids; this is affecting all of us. Where are you guys? In front of your TV and Facebook. What is more important than justice? A child was killed; killed.”

The group is concerned that the Doehms will get bail and abscond, as has been seen in the cases of Mexican American national David Nanes Schnitzer and Mexican national Zurisaday Villasenor Mendez. After being granted bail; the foreign nationals fled the country. Residents were requesting that the couple is kept on remand until their trial for “Cruelty to a Child.”

Kera Garbutt

“I wah tell yo straight Mister; I wah be real. They get bail today, they will lef the country. They will leave because she get escorted to the Belize Bank to take out money. I have already been charged in my life and I noh get dehn high class treatment deh fi go ina bank and take out money.”

Jorge Aldana

Jorge Aldana, Resident

“The issue with the two parents of Faye is that they are flight risks. We have seen in the past where the same defendant that is defending them have gotten successful application for bail and his client have left this country, have absconded. And so we are saying, if we allow these people to get bail, there is a high probability that these people will abscond on their next court hearing and the system will be failing Faye.”

And just after midday today, there was uproar from the gathering as they got word that the Doehms had received bail. It was very emotional for many, especially Laura Goldman, who could not understand why they were allowed to go, even as there is evidence of neglect and cruelty on Faye Lin.

Laura Goldman

Laura Goldman, Resident

“I don’t know how to put words honestly to what I feel, but the case today was about bail for cruelty and neglect. Out of her own mouth she said, my child has not eaten or left her room for three weeks; she bashes her own head. She admitted out of her own mouth that she neglected and was cruel to them by her neglect. I don’t understand how there can be blame. It has nothing to do with the murder charges; that’s a whole other thing. The bail hearing today was about is she neglectful and were they cruel…the answer to that question – my dog doesn’t eat for two days, I call the vet. I don’t know how to feel about a world that I live in—whether it is Belize, the U.S. or Canada or anywhere. I don’t know how to live in a world.  I have absolutely no fate for Jeffrey Eiley, for Felix Ayuso, for the hundreds of other murder victims in this country, not just Faye Lin. I have no fate in any of it anymore and I don’t know what to do with that.”

Duane Moody for News Five.