Belize City woman beaten, raped and murdered

But the weekend was not without crime. Two persons were killed and we begin with the cold-blooded attack on a defenseless single mother and her children that ended fatally for the Belize City woman who was first raped and then brutally murdered at her home in the presence of at least one family member.

Thirty-nine year old Sandra Ruiz, a senior employee at Esso Depot, had just returned to her home at the corner of Meighan and Gentle Avenues from vacation in Mexico on Sunday evening. She had spent the evening with her two daughters, thirteen year old Nadia Prado and eight year old Ana Ruiz, and was preparing to retire for the night when an intruder, believed to be a resident of the same area, pounced on her mercilessly. The sole perpetrator is believed to have gained entry to the house through the front screen door, which may have been unhooked. The series of events that occurred next is beyond belief, as the man raped Ruiz, robbed her, and bashed in her head with what is believed to be a hammer. But he did not stop there, he then turned to eight year old Ana and also bashed her head with the same weapon, wounding her severely. The only eye witness, thirteen year old Nadia, locked herself in the bathroom when she heard the commotion outside and was able to survive unharmed. Neighbours said they heard screams but thought it was a domestic dispute at another residence. But when Nadia called for help, residents and family members learnt of the grisly attack.

Miguel Ruiz, Brother of Sandra Ruiz
“My niece called and said that there was a man in the house about eleven-thirty and so my brother and I went over there. But by the time we got there the neighbours had already had my sister inna one ah dehn small rug and she was all bloody and they were bringing her over here. And the little baby had blood all over ih head. That’s what I saw and then they came over to Karl Heusner and the baby gone inna surgery and my sister pronounced dead on arrival. That’s it.”

Marion Ali
“What’s your understanding of what happened?”

Miguel Ruiz
“Well, dehn seh dah robbery.”

Marion Ali
“You familiar with her home right? was anything missing?”

Miguel Ruiz
“Her purse, all her purse with her passport and IDs and everything else and some jewellery.”

Marion Ali
“I don’t see any signs of forced entry to the home. How do you believe they got in?”

Miguel Ruiz
“My niece told me that the front door wasn’t locked. They only had the screen door closed and it looks liked the guy came in through the front door.”

Marion Ali
“How is your niece doing?”

Miguel Ruiz
“She’s critical but stable. She’s in the I.C.U. unit at Belize Health Partners. They’ll keep here there for the next twenty-four hours before they put her in the recovery ward.”

Marion Ali
“So the doctors have performed surgery on her for what?”

Miguel Ruiz
“For a fractured skull at three locations on the head. Apparently the guy hit her with a hammer as well as my sister.”

Marion Ali
“Hopes of her recovering are?”

Miguel Ruiz
“Very optimistic, according to the neurosurgeon. He says that he’s very optimistic. They have her in induced coma because they don’t want her moving around too much yet.”

Marion Ali
“Your other niece—the one who called you—what is she saying?”

Miguel Ruiz
“She’s in shock, she’s not saying much right now. We don’t really want to force her because we don’t want her to have a nervous break down and then I end up with two nieces in the hospital.”

Marion Ali
“So she’s with relatives?”

Miguel Ruiz
“She’s with me; she’s at my house right now.”

Voice of Neighbour
“I believe this person had been in the yard couple of times. What I don’t understand is that, to me like somebody stalk her because if you could kill somebody or jack somebody and then you rape them the same time, they have to be stalker. And he neva have to do that. What happen, this lady she just reached from Mexico. When she come down she went to the house. I don’t know if he was in the house already or he stamp the door after but what I get information that they say to police the door was broken already. Then what I understand last night when I hear the first scream we hear that I believe was the lady. I live exactly behind the place. The second scream, we heard a little girl running out in the street. It was our neighbour asking for help and then we had to jump up and we come to assist the help. What I get information is the girl say she was in the bathroom—the older one—while she was in the bathroom she hear screams and she think somebody di play. Secondly, she hear demanding money and demanding jewellery then she kept quiet in the bathroom. He hit the lady, the lady passed away look like; knocked out in the kitchen and then the little girl, after a while when she look the place calm so she open the bathroom and come out and when she come out she saw the man on top of her mother and that’s when she exit through the entrance door. She come out and was screaming, asking for help and then everybody start jumping and looking around for help. when we saw that he was leaving the yard we only see the back part as a white shirt. Others from the back saw the same thing. The other side saw somebody walking with a white shirt with blood; actually it’s a person who lives in the area.”

A.C.P., Crispin Jeffries
“The matter of home invasion burglaries is not a new occurrence. We have seen an increase, if that is the information that you want, on home invasions. In fact the incident in the Spanish Lookout Area was a home invasion. There was a Chinese businessman over the weekend whose home was invaded. The mode of operation of the criminal element has changed. It is no longer a burglary but it is in fact called a home invasion when persons enter your house while you are within and it does not make a difference if the criminal element is armed or not. It is a burglary, when persons are within it is referred to as a home invasion burglary.”

Voice of neighbour
“Like the week before that the Chiney had been brutalised two times and really the crime is getting higher and higher. This lady was very close to us. She was a nice lady, everybody knows she neva have no problem and it was robbery plus rape and it was a story very, very sad. If I had known to assist and we help the lady and take her to hospital. It was a different person that had been hit in the face with a hammer and in the back of the head, in the mouth I believe. We have a neighbourhood watch which a lot of people will be joining and some of them doesn’t really want to come into it because of the crime or because they threaten them. When you ask them questions they noh see nothing or they hide or they lock the doors and I want everybody in the neighbourhood to cooperate to assist the police.”

News Five spoke with two more neighbours who also heard the screams but thought nothing of it because a children’s party had just ended and there was still activity in the neighbiourhood. Ruiz had been renting the house for about six years.