Toddlers witnessed mother’s cold blooded murder
Our headline story on Wednesday night was about the chilling murder of a woman, her common-law husband and one of her children. It is one of the most monstrous homicides, and it was witnessed by two other siblings in a remote farm off the northern highway. The children are left traumatized and in fear for their own life. The motive is not known but more details are emerging on what happened at the farm located on a dirt road in the outskirts of Carmelita. News Five’s Delahnie Bain went back to the scene looking for answers.
Delahnie Bain, Reporting
Two toddlers, ages two and three, watched helplessly as their mother, thirty-five year old Carmita Rivas, was murdered at their home on Tuesday afternoon at a farm near Carmelita Village. Rivas’ nine year old daughter came home from school to find three of her younger siblings, including a newborn baby, crying inside their bedroom while her mother lay dead in the kitchen. The bodies of her step-father, Pantaleon Navarro and older brother, Carlos Antonio Wagner, were later discovered on a farm about a mile away. They too had been brutally murdered.
pantaleon navarro
The Rivas and Wagner family is laying low because the children witnessed the murder and they are afraid that the killer might strike again. Meanwhile, Navarro’s oldest daughter, Nidia, remembers him as a man who was well known and loved.
carlos wagner
Nidia Navarro, Daughter of Pantaleon Navarro
“My father is a good father. Anybody in the village can say he used to work hard, planting corn; planting all kind ah different thing weh ih could ah survive.”
Delahnie Bain
“So do you have any idea why someone would have done something like this to him and his family?”
Nidia Navarro
“No, dat dah di same thing I ask inna my head. I wish ih could ah know weh dah di real problem because if I know, he neva have no enemies and he live almost twenty-two years in Carmelita. Fi me it’s really terrible because I noh mi di expect wah thing like dis. I know di time will reach when God seh ih ready fi yoh but dis… I noh know.”
Rivas’ six remaining children are now in the custody of their grandparents. Her family has planned a wake for tonight and funeral services are set for Friday morning. Navarro’s children from his previous marriage are still finalizing arrangements to lay him to rest.
Nidia Navarro
nidia navarro
“The funeral we noh know, di wake I think is going to be tonight. We can’t say really what time because we’re waiting for the body to come from Belize.”
Delahnie Bain
“And he will be buried here in Carmelita? I know his common-law-wife and son will be in San Pablo.”
Nidia Navarro
“Dat dah weh one ah his family tell me. But den my brother dehn noh want because his real wife, who is my mother was buried right here in Carmelita.”
As for police investigations, one person of interest remains in custody. But according to Nidia, the suspect is the father of four of Rivas’ children, including Carlos who was murdered. She feels that the police have the wrong man.
Nidia Navarro
“This person weh dehn di question, I think that is the father of the first children. I think that is really wrong because I noh think ih dah wah man weh would ah do wah thing like dat to ih own children. I think ih noh fair fi mek dehn have he lock up een deh fi nothing because I know di man from years, from I young, bout fifteen /sixteen years old and I know dah man used to be here in Carmelita and I noh think dah would ah do wah thing like dat fi mek dehn di got he lock up een deh fi nothing.”
Delahnie Bain for News Five.
Arrangements are now being made to transfer the children from the Carmelita Primary School.
Don’t be so sure the man in custody is innocent, murders such as this never really happened by strangers wondering off the streets. It was someone they all knew, everyone old enough to be witness is dead.
Sometimes we forget that this is the first generation of young adults raised by crackheads, potheads & television. We are looking for & reasoning with people who have no conscience in a country that appears to have lost its soul.
In the name of greed & “progress” we have sold large tracts of land to folks who are often unfamiliar with our cultural & indifferent to the effect their presence & some of their practices can have on our rural communities. We are our brothers keeper. It is frustrating to read about the crimes being committed in the city & the isolation of the country was synonymous with safety, that illusion is gone.
In the last month, they have found at least six murder victims; the Guatemalan, the unidentified body at Scotland Half Moon, the one in Ontario & now these three, What struck me in the Scotland Half Moon case, this was not the first time a body was dumped in the area & worse because of the influx of new owners, many residents were no longer familiar with their neighbors.
For the children & justice sake, I hope they find the perpetrator & convict him/her/them, If the GOB believes that the electric chair is too expensive, we will take up a collection or better yet, borrow Ole Sparky from Florida, it works so well, sparks flew out of one murderer’s head.
Imagine the murderers are so carefree that they left the bloody glove, and knife at the crime scene. It’s as if though they know that the justice system will never catch up with them so they didn’t even bother to clean up after themselves. This story is becoming more and more disturbing. I don’t know how the poor surviving children will make it through this sick sad world, without a lot of counseling. I hope NOPCA or any other ‘child well being’ organization is monitoring this and hopefully render some well needed assistance to these kids. My sympathies go out to the family.
Belizeans, we better take our heads out of the sand and start to realize that Belize has become one of the least desirable places to live in at this point. Let’s not pretend that it is the same paradise we grew up in, and let’s start doing something positive and effective to save it. GOB has turned its back on us and I cannot express how deeply disappointed I am in the UDP because they fooled us real well! Let’s force these well pampered, luxury SUVs – riding, ELECTED PUBLIC SERVANTS to do the job they were voted to do. The same job they promised us when they were campaigning, nothing more!
Here’s an idea for start: Instead of jumping up in our celebration parades, side by side with politicians from both parties, who have repeatedly failed us and raped our Jewel, let’s show them how we really feel about what they’ve managed to accomplish: Let’s get out all those MANY PROTEST POSTERS, and take them to the celebrations, and show them how we really feel about our Jewel’s:
1. FAILED JUSTICE SYSTEM,
2. CORRUPT LAW ENFORCERS,
3. USELESS MINISTERS OF POLICE,
4. FAILED PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION SYSTEMS,
5. SHAMELESS, UNAPOLOGETIC NEPOTISM,
6. LACK OF PUBLIC SAFETY,
7. DIRTY and POORLY LIT STREETS (safe haven for criminals)
8. OVERPAID CONTRACT WORKERS (CRONIES)
9. DILAPIDATED CITY (depressing, unappealing to tourists and locals)
10. UNSAFE HIGHWAYS, ETC.
Yes, I’m talking about turning the celebrations into a meaningful PROTEST and don’t even bother telling me there’s a time and place for everything, as this is as patriotic as any of our traditional September event. What we will be doing here, is to truly, RESTORE BELIZE AND SAVE BELIZE!
What is the Department of social Service doing to assist these poor little kids that witnessed this heinous crime?Furthermore will the Police Department provide some form of temporary protection for this family?My deepest condolence goes out to this family and best wishes for these kids.
I no know but this sound like some drug dealar get revenge for missing illegal drugs. Remeba the Mexican Zetas are not that far away from Belize. And thay da savage killas.
DISILLUSIONED………..
WE HAVE VERY LITTLE TO CELEBRATE. Let us enjoy this little spot of SUNLIGHT, before the DARK CLOUDS CLOUDS OF DEPRESSION RETURNS.
WE HAVE THE REST OF THE YEAR TO PROTEST IF WE REALLY WANT TO PROTEST.
its so sad that a monster is out there. i pray they find find and this poor family gets some kind of justice. i never thought the day would come when my country would be hell on earth, but it is.
if the children are “laying low’ because of fear why did u say in the end they are with their grandmother?
Well said DISILLUSIONED!!!
The degree of corruption, social degradation, bad governance, a fractured family structure, the mismanagement of natural resources along with a regional failed economy gives clear understanding that we are a country without guidance, rapidly moving to inherit the shambles of the future in a world of competitiveness and greed.
The amount of crime and the fragmented social fabric is apalling and shameful in a country with a little over 300,000 people. Having been born in El Salvador with a good amount of my childhood spent there, my teen years in Guatemala and then to the peaceful, gorgeous and sacred Belize to adopt a new country, a new culture, to be a productive citizen of Belize to what we now have is just sad and unacceptable.
Who do we turn to, what approah do we take, how are we going to create good leadership for the future to come out of this mess are just few of the questions that some years back were unthinkable. So I agree fellow Belizeans that perhaps our heads are in “the sand” and in the mud, so deep that we are unable to appreciate the light of day and the beauty of the trees, the rivers and the sea that gives us life. Not to mention the beauty of diversity in a whole, not just our flora and fauna but also our own human diversity that makes this country worth of its name: Belize. It is indeed Sad. Let us think, ponder, brainstorm, troubleshoot or whatever we have to do but we cannot move around every day and forget that this country needs to nurture a will of change, a will to improve our lives day by day and that of our neighbours. The will needs to start today as we cannot raise our children without dreams and without hopes to inherit perhaps the faith of the Rivas family above. It is just sad.
I believe this man do know what happen you don’t believe he did this trust no man on earth. You will be surprise he did it. Remember guilty caution beat no accuser.
The loss of a child and the act is so serious, I hope the community assists the police and be brave about this to get the real person who did it. Having spared the children is no easy way off. To nab the correct man or woman who did this the community and the isolated li farms have to have one li system like neigborly watch to get to know each other and help and support each other. No send picni fu sell or buy by themselves nowadays if uno wait till tomorrow its better sometimes. Report strangers to police authorities.
y d hell is this so surprising this guy was a weed dealer…i used to get 10lbs plus a week from him…from a house to the back of the one shown, usually stacked with different kinds, my 10 wouldn even dent the stash just to say how much….this is y the family knows that poor man is innocent…its just sad that he had to start dealing to stupid people not thinking about tomorrow now where the hell will we get stuff from for that price