O.W. Murder on the eve of Independence day

Nelsi Chuc

There is another grieving family. In the village of August  Pine Ridge in the Orange Walk District, a seventeen year old allegedly pulled the trigger on a married woman, with whom he appeared to be obsessed. It happened on Independence Day eve. News Five’s Andrea Polanco has that story.

Andrea Polanco, Reporting

Twenty-five year old Nelsi Chuc would take her routine exercise out here in the remote area of August Pine Ridge Village along the feeder roads. But on Tuesday, she was riding along the road with another woman when her routine was interrupted. What is being speculated as a lover’s quarrel, turned sour here on Sugar Road and ended in Chuc’s murder. The alleged killer, a seventeen year old, pulled out a gun and fatally shot Chuc to the neck. Chuc’s aunt, who is also her neighbor, tells us what she knows of her niece’s death:

Romalda Torres, Aunt of the deceased

“I hurry gone out, I check with my son and I tell him mek ih ker mi where the scene was. I couldn’t believe when I see her laying by the road.”

Andrea Polanco

“So she was out in a remote area, that area called Sugar Road. Do you know what she doing out there at that time?”

Romalda Torres

“She always go and do exercises with her bicycle, two of them, many ladies go and do exercises there.”

Andrea Polanco

“So that guy was waiting for her out there?”

Romalda Torres

“I think. I don’t know how that happen because I really nuh know. I only si every time when she comes out and two of them use to go and do exercise. I don’t know if the boy was watching her.”

Andrea Polanco

“Did she tell you about the argument? Was there an argument between Nelsi and the young man?”

Romalda Torres

Romalda Torres

“She say, she told me yes that the boy was telling her that if she don’t accept to be with him. She won’t be for him, for nobody. That’s what the girl, the lady tell me and from that moment she say that the bwai shoot her.”

Andrea Polanco

“So Nelsi didn’t have the chance to respond?”

Romalda Torres

“No. The lady say she told Nelsi, the boy is coming with a gun and he will kill you because he done tell she that anytime he will kill she. And she say awrite mek ih kill me and she neva do nothing to stop it because she was on her bicycle. She stop but she was on top of her bicycle and she neva make nothing. The lady say she neva mek nothing to fight with the bwai, nothing.”

Andrea Polanco

“She didn’t expect him to….?”

Romalda Torres

“No, the lady say she never believed that the bwai was going to do it.”

But according to her aunt, the minor was obsessed with her niece for a long time. She says Chuc always dismissed his advances:

Romalda Torres

“Yes, yes, I know that’s what was happening, he liked to see her.”

Andrea Polanco

“And she refused him?”

Romalda Torres

“Yes, yes, many times but she never wanted to have relations. I don’t know what happened afterwards because I only heard those noises.”

Prior to Chuc’s death, Torres says that the minor was frequently creating a disturbance around Chuc’s residence, but she ignored him:

Romalda Torres

“One day before this happen I was resting at my hammock on the verandah when I hear bangs on the zinc and I told my daughter, ‘that noise where it comes from?’ and she tell me, ‘see, see, it’s the boy that is shooting Nelsi’s house.’ Last time my son from San Pedro came and we heard noise over here and my son and three of them came running to see what was happening and when the boy see my sons, he run over him with a machete but my son put down his head, if not he would’ve killed him too.”

Andrea Polanco

“So she didn’t report any of the threats before to the police?”

Romalda Torres

“I think she never do it, she never do it. When I saw those problems I told my sister and she never wanted to tell her husband because her husband won’t play, he is a strong man and he say he doesn’t care if he gets in trouble because he is old already. And she never told her father what was going on.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Andrea Polanco.