Cayo villager stabbed, bludgeoned to death

For the second time this week, detectives in the Cayo District have a murder on their hands. But as News Five’s Jacqueline Godwin reports, while the victim was discovered yesterday, the killing might have taken place as early as Monday night.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Around eight-thirty on Thursday morning, the body of sixty-seven year old Jose Rodolfo Rivas Contreras was discovered lying face down on his bedroom floor. At the crime scene investigators found the suspected murder weapons: a hammer and bloody knife. Because the body was badly decomposed, a post mortem was conducted on site and the corpse placed in a casket.

According to neighbours, Rivas was last seen alive on Monday. No one in the area can recall hearing or seeing anything unusual since then. But when a foul odour began to emanate from the home, the gruesome crime was exposed.

Maria Ruiz, Neighbour
“Two days ago we started to smell like something stink you know, but I never know dah what. So I tell my pickney, that something smell bad in here right and then I start to walk around my yard and see if I could find something in there. I find nothing, so we continued with that smell and until the day when police come. My pickney mi deh dah the shop and they tell me, mommy, you know what it look like the man cross deh dead. That dah weh they told me and I seh, that can’t be.”

Neighbours say Contreras lived alone and had moved from El Salvador to Camalote Village nine years ago. It is believed he lived off of a monthly pension sent from his homeland. Next door neighbour Maria Ruiz says Contreras basically kept to himself and was polite to everyone who greeted him.

Maria Ruiz
“He was quiet because he neva used to talk to nobody right. When you pass, you just tell him morning and he answers you and that’s all. He noh use to talk to di people them.”

But someone wanted Rivas dead. Police say the deceased was clad in a white undershirt and short pants. Forensic examinations have revealed what are described as cracks on the skull leading detectives to suspect that Rivas was struck repeatedly in the head with the hammer and then stabbed multiple times over the body with the knife. Equally disturbing is the fact that initial findings do not suggest that robbery is the motive. According to authorities, they did not find anything amiss inside the bungalow house and the victim’s wallet was found containing fifty dollars in cash.

The one lead cops are chasing tonight is the report of one neighbour that Rivas’s red pickup truck is missing from the property. The victim’s house sits between a church building and a bar and investigators are hoping that someone in the closely knit community may have seen or heard something that will bring the killer or killers to justice. Jacqueline Godwin for News Five.

Rivas’s casket was transported to nearby Roaring Creek Village where members of the Seventh Day Adventist Mission had organised funeral services for him. If you have any information that may assist authorities, please contact the nearest station or Crime Stoppers.