Swift Air Flight Attendant murdered; who did it?
maria plaza gomez
Maria Plaza Gomez, a Spanish flight attendant with Swift Air of Guatemala was holidaying at La Isla Bonita when she was murdered on Sunday morning. As we told you on Tuesday night, she was last seen alive by a fruit vendor in the company of a heavy set man. It was a most heinous murder, the tell tales signs on her body show that she was bashed to the head and a belt was found fastened around her neck. Who could have done her in and why, are questions still to be answered. Her husband is arriving on Thursday, also looking for answers. News Five’s Marion Ali headed back to San Pedro today and files this report.
Marion Ali, Reporting
The bloodstains on this cement plane was where a tourist police found the decomposing body of thirty seven year old Maria Plaza Gomez, the missing Spanish flight attendant who never showed up for work at the Maya Island Air office in San Pedro on Sunday.
corona del mar
Gomez, who was staying at Corona del Mar Hotel on the island, left the hotel shortly after breakfast that morning and walked alone straight down Coconut Drive enroute to Maya Island Air’s office to confirm that she would be on the two o’clock flight from San Pedro to Belize City.
She left the company’s office at around ten thirty and sometime around eleven, she showed up at this fruit stand in the company of a tall, heavy set Caucasian male who carried a backpack and had long hair. That was the last reported sighting of Plaza. She never made it back to the hotel, where she was supposed to check out at midday.
Her body was discovered at around three o’clock on Tuesday afternoon just a few hundred yards away, at a residence just a few minutes walk from her hotel. Her head was bashed in and a belt was fastened around her neck. Her blouse was pulled up about her face and she was covered with an inflatable floater and a black sling bag she carried. The gifts that she had purchased just minutes were found near her body.
The house where Plaza’s body was discovered is occupied by Danny Sunderman, an employee. Sunderman told News Five off camera that he had not been home since before Plaza went missing on Sunday. He added that police called him to inform him on Tuesday afternoon of the discovery at his lush yard. It is not certain if she was forced to the yard while walking with her male companion but police have confirmed that they have two people in custody.
These pictures show the police moving the body from the scene on Tuesday night to perform an autopsy at another location on the island. This afternoon the San Pedro Deputy Mayor, Pablo Ico, met with officials of the San Pedro Tourism Board, Tourism Industry Association and business community to discuss how they will treat the economic blow the heinous crime could bring to La Isla Bonita.
Pablo Ico, Deputy Mayor, San Pedro
pablo Ico
“It’s even bigger than if we had gotten hit with a hurricane. It’s a serious thing, it involves a foreigner and being a tourist destination it does affect us big time. We have a lot of policing, B.D.F. if you notice on week and such but there is always something that happens like this and it affect us and this is an island that is very quiet.”
Ico says while the island and the country, by extension, will need to recover as swiftly from the shocking murder, there are some urgent housekeeping that are required to curb crime and protect the image of the jewel.
Pablo Ico
“We got to really make sure we get a hold of somebody who’s really good in forensics and investigations and all that because you can have a calm and quiet island and if you don’t have your act together in investigation and evidence and all that, you’re still not doing anything. We have to get out there and tell the world and this is a misfortune. It’s not something that happens often. I will see what we can do in increasing probably more tourist police and probably more patrols on the island.”
Meanwhile, police are reviewing a surveillance camera that might have captured Plaza and/or her companion as they walked by on Sunday morning just moments before she was likely murdered. Marion Ali for News Five.
Gomez was the mother of a thirteen year old son.
It is not only La Isla that is infected by crimes in Belize; it is inevitable that the tourist destinations will become targets of the said crimes sweeping over the cities of Belize.
This poor woman lost her life in Belize just like that; proof that crime in Belize affects everyone.
Moving on here, If the authorities in Belize show just a little bit of the same respect, compassion, and concern for Belizeans that has fallen victim to this same kind of faith then maybe this could easily help curb crimes, somewhat.
sick sick sick all the corruption on san pedro no surprize no tourist should go there and they should hang the person that did this san pedranos no depend pa the police do it unu self hang hi m in front a the park make every one see wey happen if you commit murder on the island sell beer and ceveche fu the hanging.
When will we all get it?Until Mr start acting like a leader and hold these idiots that are comitting all these heinous crimes in the jewel nothing is going to change.If this Government keeps doing thesame thing then it’s evident that we are going to keep getting thesame result.
@Elgin, I understand we are all frustrated with the crime situation but eyewitness stated he saw her with a white man now sit and think out of the 105 murders that occured was any of them strangled with a belt this is not a Belizean MO, obviously it was a foreigner i hope they start to look into ppl they allow into this country.
its unbelievable at the way the police who are trained investigators can be such bumbling fools, cant collect the evidences properly, wont pursue a valid suspect ( because it will require them to get off their lazy bum and do some leg work) . imagine its the every day men and women around san pedro who did the leg work and found the pieces of the puzzle and with all that the police just fustrates everyone with their dont get a damn attitude. but dont worry, the catch all phrase. ( we are investigating, we cant comment on the case) in other words, who gives and we dont care, its just another murder and it will blow over. but not for the family, YOU idiot.
This could indeed be very devastating to our tourism industry in Belize. Its really a shame that a tourist had to get murdered. They are the country’s primary source of revenue and to endanger it in this way could be very costly to ALL Belizeans! This. Story is an unfortunate one for the.victim who certainly seemed to have been just another innocent victim caught in the crime way that’s sweeping through Belize. Very sad…
Very Very sad.. Hard work for years to develop a unique tourist destination in the jewel of san pedro and it runs the risk of being destroyed because of a few. many belizean families depend on this industry. Many hard working belizeans from all around the country that depend on this industry to send money to their families in their home town from Corozal up north to Toledo in the south.. San Pedranos, town council, business community, and area rep.. really need to get their act together and clean the house. we need to stop the short sightedness of blaming everything in race and have mandatory registartion of everyone coming to the island and see what their intentions are and have control or everyone will suffer in the industry. Do you know how much it will cost a destination like belize to be able to recover its image for tourism if we do not do this clena-up.. millions of dollars and thousands of jobs lost… Sometimes strict measures are needed and we will not wakeup until thisis too late.. We cannot afford this in san pedro even if politicians are shortsighted and we need to do it ourselves.
get outside help to solve this crime, Scotland Yard or FBI. the sooner the better . the least we can do now in damage control is to solve this crime with proper evidence gathering like DNA sampling. Aruba got outside help with the Holloway case.
In regards to the comments it could be devastating to the tourism industry, it already has been. The crime wave in Belize is well know here in Canada and has made many people change their plans to not visit the Jewel anytime soon. That is a fact.
Many years ago as a teenager, I roamed the streets at night with all my friends from school. The summers I spent on San Pedro with my friends are memories to cherish. Now, to read about this unfortunate lady whom was murdered in daylight is devasting to read. Especially, to leave a 13 yr. old child behind and a husband. I truely understand why my Dad says “it is not safe on the island at night much less during the day”. San Pedro is aware of the crimes that happen in daylight, but don’t believe anyone anticipated murder in broad daylight. What becomes of the Island future remains to be seen. I, the daughter of a resident on the Island, now must think to the safety of my family and my father. I know the beauty that lyes in/around the Island and it’s people. When I was a small child going to school at St. Catherines Elementary, the bells toll. People of Belize and San Pedro/Ambergris Caye must stand up and RING THE BELLS again for justice. In this, what I am conveying is the BELLS TOLLING is when a person was hung and put to death. My prayers are with the deceased family. Only thing I can say to them, I am so sorry for your lost and only in time you heal. I have lost a mother at a young age. I call my grief “sweat pain”. I am able to deal with it now, but the memories are very sweat ones.
We have lost tourists in cave tubing,scuba diving,airplane mishaps and other ways. In these situations it can be seen there are dangers the people took the risks. An open walk is to be free of harm. San pedro is not the only place this happens. Remember about a year ago, a woman tourist was raped and murdered in P.G. ! Every district has a problem. Murder and robbery are getting to be a regular event. We need some drastic rule of law. A difinition of insanity is: doing the same thing over and over, then expecting different results. Stop the insanity before we loose it all.
I’m in agreement with Ron. I was on the island when this crime occurred (my third visit in a year and a half). This makes me think about coming back…regardless of who committed the murder. 🙁 I’m hoping that the person responsible is caught as soon as possible.
We need to take control of our country towns and villages, protect our kids, visitors and family like a lion will protect its cubs…….
imagine the customs, police government workers all doing their jobs instead of just sitting down….Each town has a manifesto of persons who stays, when a crime does occur take the manifesto look at it see who travels often and you make a deduction ok every time this white man comes to Corozal a kid goes missing, lets investigate a little harder, each time mr jones goes to town there are more drugs, lets get off our lazy bums and investigate. Crime will only stop with hard work and communication you cannot expect Barrow / Briceno to solve all your problems, get those lazy bums of government workers, starting from secretarys going all the way up to get up and do what they get paid, want more money but not willing to put the extra effort to work for it.
Belize will never change cause its the criminals that shout racism will always have more voice than the few hard working men and women
Time to stop complaining and take over, only if we stand and do something drastic will this change
Lets take crime like we take algebra lets put our heads together like solving Systems of Linear Inequalities or equalities.
Why is it that when Mr X visits PG two kids disappear let us look at all the places he has been
Mr Y went to Yabra and there were 5 persons shot….
Let us all join and take it by the bulls horns
RIP Maria,
Channel 5 maybe you should do a funeral for her where everyone can participate, enough is enough, children are missing, youths are killed, witnesses are intimidated, our old people are being robbed at home, people houses burned down, hard working shop owners robbed at daylight. A cup of water can only take so much are we gonna wait till it spill over?
it is not about white or black like the great Michael Jackson song says…
Let us get someone up there in power who will do something and not just do the talk,
Independent Party’s go to each town, village and district form a party big enough to cover north to south east to west to represent and make a new party that can fight on election against the big ones, yes you will be learning on a day to day and yes it will take a lot of hard work and sometimes investment of our pockets but lets start somewhere. Let us not stand aside and just shout and when election comes say I am running as independent we stand together united as one country
I don’t get it. How hard is it to find the fat white guy she was last seen with? Really, there aren’t many people in San Pedro and a fat white man WILL STAND OUT. If this dude was innocent, he would’ve already visited the Police station and clear his name. OBVIOUSLY, he already hopped on a plane and left the Island. Try Tropic Air because the fool would not dear to take Maya. The Police are too damn slow!
There are many well experience retired criminal investigators that can be hired to investigate this crime. We hear a lot about the FBI, Scotland Yard, and very little, if any at all about RMP of Canada that are as good in solving complex criminal activities such as this crime.
THAT IS NOT A REALLY COMPLEX CRIME, IF THE POLICE CANNOT UNCOVER IT, THEN SIMPLY INVESTIGATE THE POLICE!!!
El Alcalde: Do you live in san pedro? I dont think so… You should be the last one to talk about this not being a complex crime. You have absolutely no idea what it is like within the polcie department much less the residence of this island. We are a community that know when to come together when needed and this incident is no different. We have been working tiredlessly along with the police department in making sure that we not only find who did this but also to make sure that it never happens again.
We have formed different neighbourhood watches over the years, increased our police, Bdf, which by the way the business association pays for, and not to mention secuirty guards in different neighbourhoods paid for by the residences of such neighbourhood. We hold monthly meetings with the mayor, the area representative as well as all the neighbourhood watch organizations to better improve this island. We can only try to prevent crimes like this from happening on Isla Bonita and I believe we should get credit for it and not be boombarded by negative remarks like some of you are doing. Sincerely and without malice.
another unsolved murder – the murderer probably left San Pedro on the same plane as the victim was supposed to, and is in one of our neighbouring countries. He wouldn’t have returned home, especially if it was the USA or via there, as he’s more than likely of the FBIs Most Wanted list already, and managed to stay in Belize unmolested because he has loads of cash to line pockets!
RIP Maria, and I, and many, many others are so sorry your young life ended in such a way….