Jealousy is the motive behind suicide and murder
We begin tonight’s newscast as we have in the past few weeks with another chilling story of murder in the old capital. This time the story also involves suicide and Belize City police believe it is an open and shut case of a young couple, who lived on Antelope Street Extension in the Collet Division. The cops have reason to conclude that jealousy was behind the incident, in which a young woman was stabbed to death and then her common-law-husband took his own life. News Five visited the scene to find out more.
Marion Ali
“Neighbours say that thirty-two year old Delbert Arthurs and his common-law wife of four and a half years, twenty-three year old Fania Noel, had always had a history of domestic dispute. But there was nothing to indicate that something was very wrong when they did not see them yesterday as they thought they had both gone to work.”
Nicole McDonald, Friend of Fania Noel
“I only hear bout dehn mi di have quarrel Saturday weh gone but hmmm, this real sad. Ih gone lef three pickney, two gial and one bwai. Ih judge ihself, noh. Di boy judge ihself and heng ihself. Sad.”
Patrick Harvey, Neighbour
“He seh bout how di gial weh ih have di have wah affair soh he just mi jealous and lose ih head. But dat dah di understanding weh I get.”
Shirlene Reyes, Friend of Fania Noel
“All ah we does work dah City Council together and den from deh wi gone dah S.E.L. then B.M.L. and we dah just friend and work together. Ih dah wah nice person, ih run joke, ih like play card and have fun wid ih friend deh but dat ih noh due dat weh ih get deh.”
Marion Ali, Reporting
The folks at the Belize Maintenance Limited which employed both Arthurs and Noel were also expecting them to show up. Little did they know about the drama that was unfolding at the couple’s dwelling.
Voice of Kimberly Ellis, Employer
“We were expecting her to come to work yesterday but she didn’t show up to clean yesterday.”
Marion Ali
“And the guy didn’t come in, you know that?”
Kimberly Ellis
“Well, I didn’t know that he didn’t came to work. The other workers knew but I didn’t know that he didn’t come in. But normally if he’s not showing up, she would be here. I think they said one of the workers saw him with like a lotion or something on him like he had chicken pox so they were figuring both of them had chicken pox and didn’t show up to work.”
When police arrived at the small wooden structure late Monday evening they discovered Arthurs hanging from an electrical cable from the beam inside the house. Noel’s body was lying inside a small bedroom with a large cut wound to the right side of the neck. She had apparently been killed earlier in the morning. But no one in the area knew of the horrific incident, not even the teachers across from the school just a stone’s throw away from where Noel’s six year old daughter was attending classes.
Dorothy Roker, Infant 1 Teacher, Unity Presbyterian School
“When she came to school she didn’t have on her uniform. I told her to go and put her uniform on and she went back home and that’s all I know about it. She didn’t even know that her mother was in any kind of danger or dead or anything.”
Marion Ali
“Did she come back after you sent her home?”
Dorothy Roker
“No, she didn’t come back. The teachers told me that they have sad news to tell me about Alisha, a little girl in my class and then I heard about the incident. I didn’t even know.”
The six year old girl and her two brothers, one aged three and the other only a few months old will now have to grow up without the love of a father and mother. Marion Ali for News Five.
