Two dead in love triangle in Lucky Strike

Marion Ali is back in our news room from Lucky Strike, a rural community twenty-nine miles away from Belize City on the old Northern Highway. It is known for farming and logging, but today the village comes to national prominence for a case that ended in the murder and suicide of two love sick men over a mother of five.

Marion Ali, Reporting
When residents of Lucky Strike saw two friends, forty-three year old Terrence Herbert in an argument with twenty-eight year old Jermaine Jones in the village, they never imagined that they were about to witness a murder. But that’s exactly what happened when Herbert attacked Jones with a shotgun just before one this afternoon.

Voice of Witness to Murder
“Ih just tell ah well, weh happen Jermaine? And Jermaine tell ah some kinda lee word. I noh hear weh ih tell ah but ih just tell ah wah next lee thing deh and when I hear dehn di struggle pan di road and argument and afterwards one gunshot and that’s it.”

Marion Ali
“Okay. Well, I si Jermaine bicycle is right neat his body. He was looking to ride away?”

Voice of Witness to Murder
“Yeah, ih mi di go.”

Marion Ali
“Dah something weh normally happen between dehn; dat dehn quarrel, argue?”

Voice of Witness to Murder
“First time I si dat between dehn, first time. Dah noh something weh always come between dehn two person. First time I si ih come between dehn two person deh.”

Marion Ali
What was their relation before this happened? Were they work colleagues, were they friends?”

Voice of Witness to Murder
“Dehn dah good friends.”

Marion Ali
“So dah friend kill friend.”

Voice of Witness to Murder
“Yeah.”

Herbert would then ride to his home two miles away in Rockstone Pond Number two where he then shot himself dead. His brother, Elvis Gotoy, tried to stop him.

Elvis Gotoy, Brother of Terrence Herbert
“I meet he with the gun sling pan ih shoulder so I gone and I mi di talk to and I tell ah Terrence dis no mek sense yoh know. Weh gone on wid you just now? di man seh bwai I neva mean fi kill dah young bwai just now. so by di time he di seh dat he tek di gun off ah fi shoulder, bruk it, and di empty shell drop out but he di look fi load wah next one inside. So I tell ah Terrence yoh noh wah do dat and I walk closer to di gun. Afta dat he walk weh from front ah me and I tell fi he old lady I have to go back dah work now afta wah lee while when I mi talk to ah. Then as I reach down yah so, wah lee distance away from he, I meet another old lady and ih ask me if I could please go talk to Terrence fi ah. So when I gone back now he di tell me, ih seh Elvis, no police noh wah hold me, I noh gwein dah jail. So I seh Terrence I done know weh yoh di try tell me already and I seh hear weh di go on I noh wah have no moh talking wid yoh and I grab di gun from behind he. Some next man come and we tek weh di gun from ah. I wrench di gun out ah fi he hand and burst di strap from round ih shoulder and I manage fi get the gun. I reach way back by my work deh with the gun. One ah di same bally weh mi deh wid me halla tell me Elvis, ih seh di man got wah next gun yoh know. Dehn time deh di first gunshot done gone off. By di time I reach deh, I seh hear we di go on ih have to shoot me mein cause I gwein go try do something to him bout di next gun. By di time I reach front ah di house dah because I just si when di man just drop down afat I hear the next gunshot, yoh noh.”

Dora and Wilfred Herbert heard when their son took his life.

Dora Herbert, Mother of Terrence Herbert
“He tek it right round di place deh so. Ih come and when I listen, bang again. I mi di sit down inna dis chair. I seh well it’s all over.”

Wilfred Herbert, Father of Terrence Herbert
“Whenever things like this come over him and his mind is all messed up so and he says what he’ll do we try to persuade him and we try to talk to him and he would calm down. Similar thing happen before with the lady. He was taken to Ladyville police station one time for threatening the same girl but he get over that. They were living quite good.”

Marion Ali
“Would you say that he had an anger problem?”

Wilfred Herbet
“Yes, he had one indeed.”

The motive of the murder/suicide was a love triangle over a married woman with whom Herbert shared a child and with who was friendly with Jones. The woman, Eladia Che, told us she feels no guilt over what happened because she had recently broken up with Herbert, who was her last child’s father, and Jones, she says, was just her friend.

Eladia Che, woman named in love triangle
“I can’t seh nothing, I can’t do nothing. I can’t seh nothing, I can’t do nothing. I can’t do better. I can’t seh nothing.”

Marion Ali
“You feel that this whole murder and suicide was over you? You feel guilty at all? You feel that you have some blame?”

Eladia Che
“Me noh got no blame to dat. I noh have no blame to dat because me can’t put myself inna dat because me noh know what dehn di do. I just come visit wah lee bit dah back yah. Dah some rumours he di hear. Dah lone rumours he di hear. Dat dah when everything happen, dah lone rumours he mi di hear. He just tell me last night that dah lone rumours he di hear. He tell me dat he noh di pay no mind to rumours.”

Che said she heard the gunshot which her boyfriend fired that killed her friend.

Eladia Che
“Two gial run inside. Dehn seh Miss Denie, dehn seh two person di fight out deh but I noh pay no mind and me only hear one gunshot. We neva si and I neva know weh happen. Only one gunshot I hear.”

Marion Ali
“And then what you did?”

Eladia Che
“I couldn’t do nothing.”

Marion Ali
“Yoh gone outside, yoh look outside?”

Eladia Che
“I neva look outside, I neva look outside.”

Marion Ali
“But yoh know who get killed, you know the guy?”

Eladia Che
“I know di bwai, Jermaine. I know he because just wah lee talking wi got with me and di bwai and so. Just last night dah one from back ah—weh kill ihself dah back so too—come down yah, tell me last night dat he want shot me because … he seh he want shot me but this according to weh I come out from him and I gone dah mi bredda because he only want me and I have my five kids. He noh want my kids live deh, he only want me. So I seh I noh gwein back deh. Last night ih di force me fi ker me back deh last night. Ih di force me fi ker me. I tell ah I noh want go because I si di gun inna di truck. I tell ah I noh want go with yoh because I fraid yoh do me something. Ih seh no I noh wah do yoh nothing. Ih seh lets go with me. So I tell ah I gwein. I mek up my mind and I gone and I pack up my things outta fi he room.”

The afternoon’s incident is one that police believe is an open and shut case.

Insp. Calbert Flowers, O.C., Ladyville Police Station
“We believe it’s an open and shut case. What happened, police received information of this shooting. The initial investigation revealed that these two personnel had a previous misunderstanding; it’s an old misunderstanding which led to a physical fight this afternoon, a physical confrontation where Terrence Herbert took his shotgun and inflicted shotgun injuries to Jones. He then left the location, proceeded to his residence in Rockstone Pond number one where he turned the gun on himself and inflicted the fatal injuries.”

Marion Ali
“Will police be looking at this third person, this female over whom they had this dispute?”

Insp. Calbert Flowers
“Well, yes. The investigation will take all angles. So far, yes we’ve heard that there was a dispute over this female and definitely this female will be interviewed. There are several witnesses who saw when the murder took place and when the suicide happened so we believe it’s an open and shut case.”

But while the case is clear cut for cops, the families and friends of the two men say the dispute that led to the incidents date a while back and that recently Jones had been running for his life.

Leonore Jones, Mother of Murder Victim
“He didn’t come home last night. Dat dah di only night he didn’t come for tea because he always come to my house for tea during the night. We was wondering what happened to Jermaine when we came home. We were wondering that’s all.”

Marion Ali
When was the last time you saw him?”

Leonore Jones
“Last night was Tuesday night? On Monday night he came. couple days ago he told us that he got death threats and also his sister Melissa, that they want to kill them. It’s over a woman I use to tell him, I tell him Jermaine if people threaten you, you know what you are supposed to do; report it to the police, report it.”

Allan Jones, Friend of Jermaine Jones
“Fi di past three weeks Jermaine—I have wah grocery shop dah di village and he come around and he woulda bring fi he own joke to me. Ih seh bwai yoh hear dehn want kill me? I seh who. Ih seh Terrence, di man want kill me. I run back wah joke wid ah and I guess ih neva expect dat weh happen todeh mi wah happen. Terrence supposed to follow ah down di road and dehn ketch inna wah argument and Terrence shot Jermaine.”

Marion Ali
“You also knew Terrence right?”

Allan Jones
“I knew Terrence personally also. Terrence, for me Terrence was a but … he was a mad man, mad man because Terrence threatened my life also in the past. Those were terms of simple things and he has done more than one person in the past also. So it’s not strange for what Terrence has done but it’s a bit shocking to the community for what caught Jermaine today.”

Elvis Gotoy
“Dis dah something he mi got plan because he di talk bout ih wah kill di young bwai and dehn thing deh. I neva really want get inna dehn relationship because dah neva my business at di time so I just ketch inna dat todeh and I mi di try help.”

But while Jones’ mother is understandably upset that she lost her son, there is a certain finality to this traffic story.

Marion Ali
“He kill himself as well.”

Leonore Jones
“I think he should have done that cause he kill somebody that is my son. That was my son, first born son. He shouldn’t have done a thing like that. That’s foolishness.”

Marion Ali for News Five.