PG woman is murdered on Mother’s Day

Janice Vargas

As women celebrated Mother’s Day, the life of a twenty-eight year old mother was viciously taken in the presence of her two year old daughter. It was a callous crime because Janice Vargas, who was shot at her place of work in Punta Gorda, was also four months pregnant. There are signs that she prevented two men from entering her room which adjoins the bar where she worked off and on as a waitress. But when they could not gain access, one of them shot Vargas and left her to die.  As her family grieves her murder, the community is left reeling from the senseless crime. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Pietra Jacobs, Aunt of Deceased

“I couldn’t take it.  They told me to go with her in the ambulance, I couldn’t go.  I feel like everything was just trembling in me.  I feel like my heart… so I didn’t, I never went.  And my girlfriend, she went with her.  So I came back to get ready to catch the bus to go to Dangriga because there was where they were taking her and my girlfriend called me, she said “Pietra come back to the hospital because Janice died.”

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

The senseless murder of twenty-eight-year-old Janice Vargas inside Jamaica Bar in Punta Gorda Town over the weekend has left residents of the quiet southern community stunned.  Vargas, a waitress at this nondescript establishment, had just called it a night and was retiring to her room at the rear of the building when she was approached by a pair of men.

Pietra Jacobs

Pietra Jacobs

“I get to understand that someone went to the bar and the bar was closed and they knocked on the door and my niece Janice didn’t open the door and I get to understand [that] my niece took a washing machine and put it in front of the door so they don’t have any force of entry to get in the bar and the person went from around the bar and they shot Janice through the window.”

A single shot was fired point-blank.

Inspector Ernel Dominguez, Deputy O.C., Punta Gorda Police

“Police reached to this area where upon entering into the building they observed in the corridor leading to the back entrance of the building what appears to be a female lying in a pool of blood face up with what appears to be a gunshot wound to the right shoulder.”

Ernel Dominguez

The violent pre-dawn attack was witnessed by Vargas’ two-year-old daughter.  The family strongly believes that the pregnant mother, having been mortally injured, was left to hemorrhage on the ground inside the building before being transported to the Punta Gorda Hospital.

Pietra Jacobs

“Well after two [o’clock] I was coming from the nightclub Embassy and my sister-in-law called me and she told me, “Pietra, where are you?”  I tell ahn, “I’m coming from Embassy and she told me, “How yoh noh reach hospital?”  I tell ahn, “Weh happen?”  She said, “Girl, Janice got shot”  And I reached to the hospital, and when I reach there the first thing I was asking for my two-year-old grandniece and then they took me to the bar, Jamaica Bar, and when I reached there the little girl wasn’t there so I reached the police station and there I met a mobile.  We came to the station and there was where I met my grandniece and she told me, “Granny, Janice gaan.”  And then I took her to the hospital where my niece was screaming, she was bawling out.”

Vargas would later be en route to Dangriga for further medical attention but she would not survive the journey.  Inspector Ernel Dominguez, Deputy Officer Commanding the Punta Gorda Sub-formation, says that Vargas was in the company of another individual when the incident took place.

Insp. Ernel Dominguez

“Due to the condition of the person at the time who was unconscious, police transported her to the Punta Gorda Town Hospital where she was later on her way to the Southern Regional Hospital where she succumbed to her injury.  So far police have detained one male person and are seeking another who can assist them with their investigation into this incident.”

Janice, says her aunt, had recently moved to the location at the corners of Freedom and Emery streets, where the bar is situated.  Her employment there was off and on.

Pietra Jacobs

“She used to work there then she stopped, then she went back and she lived at the bar.  When Janice died she wasn’t living with me.  About two months ago she went and live at the bar because the bar has a room to the back where she stayed, so from the bar they have a door that goes straight to her room.  So she lived at the bar.”

Isani Cayetano

“Talk to us a bit about Janice, what kind of person was she?”

Pietra Jacobs

“Everybody here in PG, especially in this area that we live, Nihi Hollywood, everybody knows that Janice is this quiet person.  Janice is a person she would bid you the time of day and that was just it.”

It is widely speculated that Vargas’ killer had made an unwelcome sexual advance at her earlier that night and when she paid him no mind, he returned sometime later.

Insp. Ernel Dominguez

“So far there is not a clear motive.  We, at this time, can say that there hasn’t appeared to be anything stolen from the establishment, so the motive is not clear in that regard.”

Isani Cayetano

“How soon do you expect to have this individual who is currently in custody arraigned here at the Magistrate’s Court?”

Insp. Ernel Dominguez

“I must say that this person in custody is only a person of interest so far.  We are looking for another person who should be able to assist us further with our investigation.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.