Naked watchman was robbed and murdered?

Israel Matu

The naked and lifeless body of a watchman was found in a cane field over the weekend.  Israel Matu left his house for work last Friday and hours later he was seen hanging out at a bar. But it was until Sunday that his body was found; his family believes that the motive for his murder is robbery. Duane Moody spoke to Matu’s family and files this report.

Duane Moody, Reporting

Israel Matu, a resident of Patchakan Village in Corozal District, is believed to have been murdered sometime after ten on Friday night. His nude body was found inside a cane field on the Chan Chen/Patchakan Road by relatives sometime after three on Sunday afternoon; a day and a half after he perished. The thirty-seven year old watchman left for work after one on Friday afternoon.

Leopoldo Matu

Leopoldo Matu, Father of Murder Victim

“He gone dah work Friday about one o’clock and we get to know it until Sunday morning and I put some gas in the pickup and I gone to see what is going on. The man tell me that he done take the man place because he noh appear Saturday.”

Abelardo Chan, Brother-in-Law of Murder Victim

“The other watchman said he hasn’t seen him since Friday that he left from there; that he hasn’t appeared. So then I told them to go check at the hospital that maybe there is someone there that is injured and lost or to go give a report at the Corozal Police Station. But before that, to go check at his house to see if he is there. So they went, and my other brother in law and I, his other little brother, came to Chan Chen to the lady’s bar where he was said to have been drinking that night. The lady said that yes he was there and that he had a few beers but that he said he was going home to rest so that he could return to work. But she doesn’t know if he made it home or not.”

Matu never reached home or to work the following day…that’s when the family realized that something was wrong. And an investigation into his whereabouts by family members ensued. Matu was last seen socializing before ten at a bar in Chan Chen and then was making his way home when he was attacked.

Leopoldo Matu

“When I pass dah Chan Chen, I gone dah wah bar there weh name Rosita. I asked her if she noh see that bwai? And she said yes he drink two beers here and ten o’clock dah Friday night he move from there and he tell ahn that he going home. And then I asked her if she noh see with whom he was drinking and she said yes. So I come and on Sunday the man noh reach home. About ten mecates from the village, I found him dead without clothes and all ih head buss up.”

Abelardo Chan

Abelardo Chan

“You women walk all along where the cane is cut, my other brother-in-law will walk on this side and I park the pickup truck and walk over there to see what we find. And as I was heading over there, when my wife yelled for me that he was there but he was dead. According to the information they gave us, they hit him with the bottle; the broken bottle that u see there and they dragged him, you can see where they dragged him. You can see how he was fighting for his life. Since the sun was very hot yesterday it dehydrated the body even more and he died.”

The family believes that robbery was the motive for his killing.

Leopoldo Matu

“I asked the man who paid him, the white man, and he tell us this morning that he paid the man five hundred dollars. Dehn bwai see that he got money and they went with him dah the village.”

Duane Moody

“So you believe that it was the same persons that he was socializing with at Rosita Bar; that they were the ones who assaulted him?”

Leopoldo Matu

“I think so because dehn see the man got money and because of that money I think dehn kill him.”

The body of Matu is at the Corozal Community Hospital morgue where it awaits a post mortem examination. No one has been detained as yet and the investigation continues. Duane Moody for News Five.