5-year-old dead, stepmother charged
It is the sixth death of a Belizean child in the last two weeks. And if such tragic events can be ranked in some type of order, then the lost of life that occurred this weekend in Orange Walk, is the most disturbing yet.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This afternoon twenty-three year old Noemi Ordonez was charged with the murder of her five-year-old stepson, Edgar Gonzalez Jr. According to the authorities, just after midday on Saturday, the toddler was rushed to the Northern Regional Hospital with two deep stab wounds to his stomach. The child was pronounced dead on arrival.
Inspector Gualberto Garcia, Orange Walk Police Dept.
“She’s alleging that it was an accident and it is the child who inflicted the wounds on himself.”
Janelle Chanona
“Tell me in detail how she explained that.”
Inspector Gualberto Garcia
“Well she is just saying that she was in the bathroom with the three children, because she has two other children, and that she took the first two to the bedroom to change them and she left the one that is dead now at the bathroom and that upon her arrival observed him crying, bleeding from his stomach area saying, that he had hurt himself and that it hurts.”
Police say they have already retrieved what they believe to be the murder weapon…a kitchen knife with a four inch blade…the wall in the family’s home still bears the bloody trail little Edgar left behind.
Family members tell News 5 the only two eyewitnesses to the grisly crime, Gonzalez’s two half brothers, aged three and four, are still traumatized by what they saw.
Inspector Gualberto Garcia
“We have spoken to the one, the four year old one, but he is saying what the mother is saying that it is the kid who inflicted the stab wounds.”
Janelle Chanona
“Because family members told me otherwise, that the baby was saying that it was the mommy that hurt his brother.”
Inspector Gualberto Garcia
“No, we spoke to the child and he is saying that his mother said that the child inflicted the wounds by himself.”
Janelle Chanona
“So he is just repeating what the mommy said.”
Inspector Gualberto Garcia
“Exactly.”
Today, Gonzalez’s biological mother, grandmother and other family members gathered at their church to mourn the five-year-old’s death. The boy’s father, twenty-seven year old Edgar Gonzalez Sr., was at work when the incident happened.
Edgar Gonzalez (Translated from Spanish)
“I can’t say anything. I can’t say something that I don’t know anything about. But in my heart I feel that all of this was something that just happened.”
According to Gonzalez, his son moved in with his new family last December and there had been no sign that his wife was capable of such an act.
Edgar Gonzalez
“They had a good relationship. She had a good relationship with her children especially towards him. She was very attentive towards all the children.”
“She was always a quiet woman. She always seemed a normal person to me. We had been together for five to six years. I think that’s enough to know somebody in terms of their psychology and spirituality.”
But sources close to the child tell News 5 otherwise, that little Edgar was, to a great extent, neglected, but police have not been able to substantiate that accusation.
Inspector Gualberto Garcia
“Well I think the community is appalled by it, but unfortunately, none of the neighbours want to come out and help us with the investigation because they are alleging that everything happened in the house and nobody saw anything. That is the only reason why we had not been able to have a better picture of what is happening.”
On Tuesday, Noemi Ordonez, eight months pregnant with her third child, will be transported to Hattieville prison. Her case has been adjourned until January, sixth 2003.
On November, twenty-sixth two children perished in a fire in the Stann Creek Valley. The other deaths include children drowning in a drain in Hattieville, choking on a chicken bone in San Pedro and dying from head trauma in Belize City.
