Body found in hotel, police suspect murder

Is it murder? Suicide? A drug overdose? Or simply a death by natural causes? That’s what police are trying to figure out following the discovery of a body in a Belize City hotel room. According to police, forty-seven year old Joanna Josephine Aranda, a resident of Dangriga’s back-a-town area, was discovered naked in one of the rooms of the Golden Star Guesthouse on New Road. Employees told police that Aranda was a frequent customer of the guesthouse and had checked in on Monday night. But when they went to remind her about checkout time around 9:00 this morning, they found the door open and her lifeless body on the bed, with foam coming from the mouth and nose. A post-mortem has been scheduled for tomorrow and until that time, police are treating the death as a homicide. They tell News 5 that during the night Aranda had a male visitor, but he has not been identified. Anyone with information on his identity or whereabouts is asked to please contact the Police Department.