Farm worker is latest murder victim

Tonight local law enforcement authorities are investigating yet another murder. The latest killing occurred in the Belize district on Thursday night and as News Five’s Jacqueline Godwin reports, detectives are still trying the determine the motive behind the crime.

Lavern Benjamin, Daughter of Murder Victim
“Why, why did they kill him? Why? That’s what is ask, why they kill him.”

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Fighting back tears, Lavern Benjamin and Ysela Salazar say they are at a loss as to why anyone would want to kill their seventy year old father, Juan Tot. For the past six years, Tot worked at the Citrus Company of Belize farm located at mile three on the Coastal Road in La Democracia Village. But around nine last night, the elderly man’s mutilated body was found lying on a feeder road in an orange orchard on the farm.

Lavern Benjamin
“They say they chop him here in the face, piece of his ears come off, behind here (neck) and his finger. I think this (neck) is the one that killed him because they chop. Just the front was holding him, and they got here too (across nose).”

The gruesome discovery was made by farm employees who became suspicious after their co-worker did not return to the sleeping quarters. Preliminary investigations have led police to suspect that Tot was killed by two men who also worked on the property.

Lavern Benjamin
“They just tell we that they kill him, they find him dead and two boys from his work, two Belizean boys. That is what they tell us, and that they find him real chop. Cruel they killed him.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“Do you know if he had a misunderstanding with anyone, because the police are saying that the two people they suspect had a misunderstanding with him?”

Lavern Benjamin
“Well they didn’t tell us that this morning. They didn’t tell us that. This morning they say that two Belizean boys chop him up. That dah all they tell us and they say they know who the two person is; that dah what they told us. I ask them if they know the two person and they said yes. They say that when the workman they never seen him reach at the house, so the workman went and gone look for him. When they gone and look for him dah because they see him chop up and already die. That is what they tell us”

What also disturbs the family is that the killers did not steal anything from Tot. At the time of his death, he still had in his possession all his money, which totalled six hundred dollars.

Lavern Benjamin
“We surprised because they say if the guys they chop him so bad and didn’t take no money, it sound very funny. They find the money, they find everything. So it very—and it hurts.”

Ysela Salazar, Daughter of Murder Victim
“From he go straight to his home and from home to work and to our home too.”

Today the family say they hope the police catch the killers.

Lavern Benjamin
“They shouldn’t kill my daddy that way, because my daddy noh fass with nobody, no, nobody. But whoever do it, and who di see me, just like how they do my daddy they wah get worse than that. And dah no threatening thing I di seh, for there is a God, there is a God and what goes around comes around, because my daddy is a nice person and it really hurts.”

Jacqueline Godwin for News Five.

Police tell News Five tonight that they are seeking two suspects for questioning, but up to news time no arrests had been made.