“Dadz” Killed Execution Style in PG
Dennis Trapp
A barrage of bullets signaled the break of dawn in Punta Gorda today. The sound of gunshots woke up the sleepy coastal town to the news that a well-known resident had been murdered. He was shot multiple times as he sat in the driver’s seat of his vehicle to report for work at the Punta Gorda Town Council. Reporter Andrea Polanco has more in the following story.
Andrea Polanco, Reporting
This was the scene after four o’clock this morning in Punta Gorda – cell phone footage captured a small crowd of angry family and friends gathered near the Punta Gorda Town Council as Scenes of Crime personnel processed the scene of the murder of thirty-six-year-old Dennis Trapp better known as “Dadz.” He was a driver and mechanic with the sanitation unit of the Town Council. As the officials removed Trapp’s body from his vehicle where he was killed to transport the body to the hospital – the tragedy of what happened sunk in for the family left behind. The angry words turned to agonizing cries – as they began to mourn the life taken.
Trapp’s sister, Judith Noralez, says that he left home around three-thirty this morning, but by after four, he was a dead man – shot sixteen times in his vehicle.
On the Phone: Judith Noralez, Sister of the Deceased
“While he dropped asleep inna that vehicle I believe that it was then that gunman went there and shot him through the glass of the vehicle and then when they done shot him they opened back the door and finished him.”
Andrea Polanco
“Do you know how many gunshots he received?”
On the Phone: Judith Noralez
“I hear about sixteen gunshots he received.”
Andrea Polanco
“You said sixteen?”
On the Phone: Judith Noralez
“About sixteen gunshots I heard he got.”
Andrea Polanco
“Wow, so someone definitely sent a message – wanted him dead?”
On the Phone: Judith Noralez
“Yes.”
Noralez says she believes the killer or killers were watching her brother – she says earlier that night a suspicious person went looking for him at another residence. She also suspects that someone tampered with the surveillance camera in the area to cover the deadly incident.
On the Phone: Judith Noralez
“I do believe there was an inside job because the security camera was turned because there is a security camera there. That has to be somebody who knows the movements of my brother that has links to the gunman so that they could have gone and killed my brother.”
While this attempt ended in murder – and took away the family’s loved one – this is the second attempt on Trapp’s life in recent weeks. Noralez says someone wanted her brother dead.
On the Phone: Judith Noralez
“This is not the first time they try to attempt and kill my brother. About three weeks ago – his daughter was going to see her father and it was like God sent her there. When she went there she saw two persons outside in the area. They tried to send a hit again somebody from Belize City came all the way to PG telling her brother that a certain person sent a hit for him.”
Noralez says that while Trapp may not have always walked the straight and narrow way – she has no idea why he was killed.
On the Phone: Judith Noralez
“My brother is a humble young man, hard working. I am not going to say that he is perfect and yes he has maybe done other stuff in the past but nothing that I know about that he has killed anyone.”
Andrea Polanco
“Why would you imagine there was that hit out on him?”
On the Phone: Judith Noralez
“That is the same thing I want to know because he never talked his problem to us.”
Andrea Polanco
“Do you know if there is something from his past that maybe could have triggered this murder?”
On the Phone: Judith Noralez
“I don’t know if there is something from his past. I am still here thinking and wondering why. I am still asking myself why?”
Trapp was a father of three. He was working with the PG Town Council for a little more than two years. The family describes him as an easy going guy who was humble and always happy. Reporting for News Five, I’m Andrea Polanco.
