Orange Walk Taxi Man Murdered

Matias Alpuche

The weekend ended in tragedy for the family of a taxi man in the north. Fifty-four year old Matias Alpuche was stabbed to death by his fare in the Petsville area of Orange Walk. Prior to his savage stabbing he had visited with his estranged wife and set out to work. He did not live long as he was attacked inside his car. There are witnesses as to who took his life but a search of the area was greatly inhibited by the darkness of Sunday night. Here is News Five’s Hipolito Novelo with a report.

Hipolito Novelo, Reporting

Before his murder, fifty four year old Matias Alpuche spent the Sunday afternoon with his estranged wife and children. This is the last picture that was taken of him when he was alive. This picture shows blood splatters on his recently rented grey Toyota Camri taxi in which he was murdered.  It was a little before six o’clock on Sunday evening that residents of the Petville Area of the Honey Camp Road witnessed the murderer flee from the scene.

Voice of: Maria Ayuso, Eyewitness  

“We saw the taxi car coming. It was swerving, going in and out through the bushes. It looks like he was struggling. I don’t know if they were struggling for the wheel or he had already stabbed him. There was a cane truck on the other side of the road and the taxi car almost crashed the truck. That is when we saw the taxi man came out of the car and he went to trunk and he took out the bike. He threw the bike, almost to the fence. That is when we saw the young boy because it was a young boy, he came out from the back of the car and he took the bike. We shouted at him. We shouted ‘ey’ because we wanted to let them know that we were seeing. We shouted at the taxi man because we wanted him to know that we saw that he flung the bike but we did not know that the taxi man was injured. Afterwards the boy jump on the bike and he went fast.”

Alpuche returned to his taxi and continued driving. After a few yards, the taxi stopped. Alpuche opened the door and yelled for help. He had been stabbed several times and was bleeding profusely.

Voice of: Maria Ayuso

“I saw the man still breathing but he was on the right hand side, leaning. I noticed that he had a stabbed wound on his chin. He was bleeding out. All of this shirt full of blood. I didn’t know he had more stab wounds. We started to call police, but no one was answering and we tried to get numbers and nothing until we finally got the police and the man was still breathing like he had a stable breathing. He stopped for about four minutes, but then he started again and I said that he was still alive. So when the police reached we told them to rush him.”

Alpuche was rushed to the Northern Regional Hospital; he had lost a lot of blood. His fate was grim and by six-twenty-five the doctor pronounced him dead. A manhunt for the young murderer ensued, with residents and police searching the bushes.

Voice of: Maria Ayuso

“He is light skin complexion. He is not dark, but he is not white, white either. He is about five [feet] seven [inches], I assumed and he has curly, curly hair. It is short, but it is yellow at the tips. He had a red shirt when I saw him. I am not sure if he had a bag, but when my uncle saw him he had already changed his shirt and he had the red shirt on his neck. He was right there standing up near the bush and the bike was at the side.  When he saw that they reversed that is when he went because he saw that they were looking for him. He is skinny. He is not fat. He is kind of all, five-six, five-seven. He looked young. I would say maybe twenty-one, twenty-two. So they followed the boy on the private vehicle, trying to find him in the bushes. They saw him, but by the time they come back to tell the police where the boy was the boy had already went in. We called all of the neighbors. All of them were on high alert for the boy. So the neighbors called saying that he just saw the boy just passed through back there that is when my cousin came running, hollering that they saw the boy back here on our land by the bamboos and coconut. So then the police came back and we went to find him and we heard a gunshot, but the gunshot was not the police. It was the neighbor who saw the boy running back there.

The setting sun left the residents at a disadvantage. The murderer escaped leaving Alpuche’s estranged wife, Lourdes Cocom with many questions.

Lourdes Cocom

Lourdes Cocom, Estranged Wife of Victim

“Yesterday, five-twenty he was here, right here at my house. He was hanging here with his granddaughter and two daughters.”

Hipolito Novelo

“Did he ever come to you and tell you that he had any beef with anybody?”

Lourdes Cocom

“No. He didn’t tell me nothing. He just came and said it is too slow for the taxi and he came right here and relaxed. He sat over there and then he said that he was going.”

Hipolito Novelo

“How long was he running taxi for?”

Lourdes Cocom

“Recently. Like last week Thursday he started.”

Hipolito Novelo

“Why would anyone want to hurt him?”

Lourdes Cocom

“I really don’t know.”

…and investigators, at this point, don’t know either. A motive hasn’t been established and a suspect hasn’t been identified.

Joseph Myvett

ACP Joseph Myvett, Head, National Crimes Investigation Branch

“Police are conducting an investigation into this matter at this time. We also know that he does his taxi run from the Queen Victoria Avenue somewhere in the vicinity of the town hall so we are on the ground at this time since the incident, still on the ground trying to continue with the investigation. At this time we do not have any suspect in our custody and we do not have any motive as yet.”

Reporter

“Was there a robbery element?”

ACP Joseph Myvett

“We do not know at this point in time whether or not anything was stolen from him.”

While police continue their investigations Alpuche’s long friend, Maria Perez told News Five that the Trial Farm taxi man seemed ‘stressed’ before his passing. Perez rented a small room to Alpuche and at five p.m. every day, he would arrive but he failed to do on Sunday.

Maria Perez

Maria Perez, Friend of Deceased (Translated)

“My daughter said that when he went to get ice he was very stressed. She can say. She saw him. She was washing. He was very stressed that he had his eyes red, he grabbed a machete and cut the knife. He told the girl, “Move away from here because I don’t like people involved or do you want me to (hit) you.”  That is how she noticed that he was very upset. When he came he did not show me his face. Every day at five he came. At five o’clock, he said he came because of this, of what is happening but five passed, six passed and he didn’t come.”

Hipolito Novelo

“What would you want to say to the person who did this?”

Lourdes Cocom

“I can’t say nothing. I leave it to Jesus.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Hipolito Novelo.