Businesswoman murdered execution style

There has been a reduction in the murder statistics in the City, but the count notched up today by one in the Capital. On Tuesday night, a businesswoman from the Las Flores area of Belmopan was murdered; execution style. It is believed that Zoila Elizabeth Garcia was lured to a football field located in an isolated area. Garcia, a telephone top up agent, left her house to meet someone who had called her presumably to take care of a transaction.  Residents reported hearing what sounded like a single discharge but thought nothing of it since children in the neighborhood are constantly lighting firecrackers during this time of year.  Soon after, Garcia’s body was found by a police patrol, but her money was missing. One person has been detained, but police say there are following at least three leads. Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

The murder of twenty-nine-year-old Zoila Elizabeth Garcia, a businesswoman of Las Flores, is the latest whodunit mystery for Belmopan police to unravel.  Garcia, a retailer of phone cards and credits, was last seen by her father on Tuesday night, shortly before meeting up with someone near the football field a spitting distance away.  What her family did not know is that it would be their last encounter with her before authorities notified them of her demise.

Voice of: Sister of Deceased

“To my knowledge I heard that, like how she sells credit, I heard that someone, the last call that she got was someone that was going to pay her a bill of credit.  So, to my knowledge she was to meet this person at the football field and she went there and that’s what I heard that she was shot in her head, at the back, you know.  People say that they heard two persons quarrelling so I don’t know what was happening there.  So I think after their discussion the person had a gun and when she was walking, like leaving the place, the person shot my sister at the back of her head.”

Garcia was dispensed with in cold blood.  Her cell phones and other personal effects, save for a total of three thousand, seven hundred dollars, reportedly on her at the time of the ruthless execution, remained intact.  Despite an ongoing investigation into the homicide, police have no solid leads.

ASP Sinquest Martinez

ASP Sinquest Martinez, O.C., Belmopan Police Formation

“It is very early and when the body was found, the scene was isolated at that time so we are still trying to get more information of what is going on because we are, we have about three stories that we are looking at, we are following and the post mortem will help us a lot in which direction we need to go.”

While the family suspects that Elizabeth may have been lured to her death before being robbed of the lump sum, speculations are that it could have also been a crime of passion.  Those theories however, remain to be proven.

Voice of: Sister of deceased

“Well that is our suspicion right now, to this point because she was a person who was very calm and friendly with everyone and didn’t seem to have any problem with any other person but, you know, there always will be someone that envies you so I think that yeah, to our suspicion, that that is what we think right now.”

Isani Cayetano

“Tell us a bit about your sister Elizabeth in terms of her getting into the business of selling credits and what have you and how long has she been doing this?”

Voice of: Sister of deceased

“I’m not really sure but I think it’s two years, if I’m not mistaken [it’s been about] two years.  She started at San Martin, we were in San Martin first and then when my parents moved to Las Flores she came here to live and she continued the business of selling. It was good.”

That venture resumed from the Garcia family home on Orquidia Street in Las Flores.  Business was looking up for the young saleswoman and, notwithstanding the debt owed to her, everything seemed okay.  ASP Sinquest Martinez told News Five earlier today that one suspect remains in police custody.

ASP Sinquest Martinez

“We have one person detained because we are hearing, we are getting three different stories and we need to follow them likewise.”

Isani Cayetano

“Upon discovering the body of twenty-nine-year-old Elizabeth Garcia, what did the police come across?  Can you share that with us?”

ASP Sinquest Martinez

“Well the police were doing a patrol within the area when we came across the body.  We thought it was someone in a drunken state but when we realized that it wasn’t that and it was of a female then they were more concerns to us.  We did what we needed to have done within that area, we processed the scene and we saw the injuries that she received.  We transported the body to the Western Regional Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival and, as we speak, the post mortem is being conducted in Belize City at this time.”

Her mother, who declined an interview, is emotionally distraught.  This is the second tragedy to befall the Garcia family within a year.  Elizabeth’s brother Alley was also killed in 2012.

Voice of: Sister of deceased

“For her, as a mother, to lose one of her children is really hard because she’s going into this a second time because just last year my brother was killed too.  So, you know, now to go through this another time it’s really hard and she’s really sad, she’s in shock, you know.  It’s something that affects all of us because we, it was just something that was just not expected.”

Belmopan police are appealing to the public to come forward with information that would assist in solving the latest murder. Isani Cayetano reporting for News Five.