Belize - Francesca Matus, 52, & Drew De Voursney, 36, murdered, Corozal, 25 Apr 2017

[Trvl4Lyfe]

Travel Warning from the State Department for Belize:

CRIME: Crime may occur anywhere in Belize, and criminals frequently target tourists, including those at resorts and on the roads and riverways. Crime, including sexual assault, armed robbery, and murder, remains high and has spread to areas that were previously unaffected by crime. Sexual harassment and/or assault of persons traveling alone or in small groups have been reported.

The majority of crimes remain unresolved and unprosecuted. A lack of capacity, resources, and training impedes the ability of local police to effectively investigate crime and apprehend serious offenders.

Just started reading this thread but isn't this (Belize ) where they are always advertising on infomercials to buy property here...?

 

[Satchie]

I hope their ordeal was over quickly.*

The way they were concealed seems to me quite unusual for a stranger robbery.* Generally, bodies are concealed when the perp(s) have some connection to the victims, or the original crime scene.

A great danger to expats in tropical paradises is being too trusting of other expats, who may be criminals, fraudsters, or just broke and desperate.* The local police aren't usually very sophisticated like the police back home.

It may have been someone who didn't want to leave victims who could id them, so it may have been intended to be homicide. If it was a typical stranger hold up, the robbers would most certainly have had weapons and, typically, panic and use them when the victims resist or fight back.

 

[dotr]

Sad irony that Drew survived he**, but died in paradise.
imo.

Brendan Barfield, a friend of DeVoursney, said: 'Drew is no longer with us. Someone had killed a United States Marine, my brother in arms, who survived Fallujah, Iraq and Afghanistan.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rlfriend-duct-taped-wrists.html#ixzz4fxmriz8D
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[otto]

Their hands were duct taped.
Someone had to have a way of subduing a very large man.
If there was no weapon, how did they do that?
If there was a weapon, why strangle them?
And what was the brown that one of the people saw on the vehicle?
Did one of them sustain injuries prior to strangulation?

I'm not buying this "robbery" theory. Why would a robber who picked them out of a crowd in a restaurant have duct tape? Why are police saying they had a lot of money? The families already said that their travel money was at Francesca's house, and reports are that the money was still there after they were reported missing.

Sounds like police are looking for the lazy solution ... robbery, random (with a roll of duct tape), no suspect ... easy way out to avoid doing a proper investigation.

 

[otto]

Joining this sad case for hopes of answers.
After the Natalie H. case and also the other lady that died in Aruba (suspected homicide); I'm worried that the local LE would try to downplay it; so as not to keep tourists away ?
Just thinking out loud and mean no offence.

Agreed that strangulation seems personal.
Was it some local(s) who felt belittled or disrespected ?

Or someone walking up to them asking for $$ or favors and were turned down by the victims ?

Not the victims' fault-- sometimes people are wiser to turn someone down, if they are coming across as untrustworthy.
Also getting the feeling that they were targeted at the last public place they were at -- the bar. Someone was watching them......

If their lives were threatened, I'm sure they would have said that there was lots of money at the house, and that they would have offered that money to stay alive. That isn't what happened, so I think this was personal, and I think that Francesca was the target.

 

[fred&edna]

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/t...iend-ambushed-in-robbery-turned-double-murder

“We believe they had a lot of money in their possession and someone tried to rob them.”

Why would they be carrying a large amount of money... and how did anyone know? Did it seem obvious they were carrying a lot of money while enjoying their night at the bar? I suppose "a lot of money" can mean different things to different people and... I know killers don't often care how much. It's so, so very senseless and sad.

 

[fred&edna]

Otto... I think we share half a brain. We seem to be posting about the same time with similar thoughts But, you're always ahead of me! I hadn't even considered there might be more (i.e. Francesca being the target).

 

[otto]

“We believe they had a lot of money in their possession and someone tried to rob them.”

Why would they be carrying a large amount of money... and how did anyone know? Did it seem obvious they were carrying a lot of money while enjoying their night at the bar? I suppose "a lot of money" can mean different things to different people and... I know killers don't often care how much. It's so, so very senseless and sad.

I don't believe it. I don't believe that police have any evidence that they had a "lot of money" on them when they were abducted and murdered. We know that their travel money was at home, so it's much more likely that they had enough money on them for dinner and that's it.

 

[otto]

Otto... I think we share half a brain. We seem to be posting about the same time with similar thoughts But, you're always ahead of me! I hadn't even considered there might be more (i.e. Francesca being the target).

I agree! I think this was about Francesca. If Drew's body was on top of Francesca's, then I suspect that she was killed first. If I were investigating, I would be looking at old boyfriends, employees, people who felt somehow wronged. Whoever did this had duct tape in his pocket, so he had a plan to abduct and murder. I also don't believe this had anything to do with money because the money was sitting at Francesca's house all night long - for hours while no one knew that she was murdered - and the suspect(s) did not bother to get the money.

 

[Gardenista]

For some reason, I get the feeling she might be somewhat wealthy. Maybe she did offshore banking in Belize and was bringing back cash to Canada? Maybe the bank tipped someone off?

 

[Ontario Mom]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/missing-us-man-girlfriend-found-dead-belize/story?id=47153420

The first article I read about the duct tape also said the same - they both had duct tape on their right wrists. My first thought was that they were bound to something with that duct tape but only bound by one hand. Which certainly seems rather strange, but I can't think of any other explanation for it.

 

[otto]

For some reason, I get the feeling she might be somewhat wealthy. Maybe she did offshore banking in Belize and was bringing back cash to Canada? Maybe the bank tipped someone off?

I think anyone from Canada or the USA would seem to have a lot of money in a country like Belize.

 

[otto]

The first article I read about the duct tape also said the same - they both had duct tape on their right wrists. My first thought was that they were bound to something with that duct tape but only bound by one hand. Which certainly seems rather strange, but I can't think of any other explanation for it.

If you duct tape two people's right hands together, they can't run anywhere easily because one person has to run backwards?

 

[Ontario Mom]

If you duct tape two people's right hands together, they can't run anywhere easily because one person has to run backwards?

But the articles say they weren't bound together, so there's that. I guess it could certainly mean that they were bound together at some point but the tape removed before they were left there.

 

[dotr]

http://barrie.ctvnews.ca/it-s-just-sad-friends-mourn-keswick-woman-slain-in-belize-1.3395237

Friends and neighbours of a Keswick woman killed in Belize are stunned she won’t be coming home.

A memorial has formed outside of Francesca Matus’ home, as the people who knew her best lay flowers and pay their respects.
“She was just so friendly with everybody. It's just sad,” says Joe Eastman

.

Matus moved to Keswick two years ago. She had finally just finished renovating her home and wanted to enjoy it this summer with friends and her 21-year-old twin boys.

 

[LayzeeDayzee]

For some reason, I get the feeling she might be somewhat wealthy. Maybe she did offshore banking in Belize and was bringing back cash to Canada? Maybe the bank tipped someone off?

I'm not wealthy so I don't know this (lol) but if you wanted to bring back cash from one country to your home country, wouldn't you just wire it or e-transfer it.....versus bringing back actual literal cash tho? Plus if you bring back more than, say, $10,000 don't you have to declare it and pay some kind of taxes etc on it when going thru customs?

I still would like to know how whoever did this was able to subdue a 6'6" former soldier who looks, from pictures, to be in good shape? IMO they'd have had to kill him first, she was a pretty petite lady from what I have read.

And what's the deal with them each having had duct tape only on their respective right wrists....but not bound together? Though I guess at some point a killer would have to cut the duct tape to 'free up' the victims so that he could get them out of a vehicle and to their final resting place.

I always cringe when I read about tragedies like these that happen in touristy locations, that full and thorough investigations won't be done by their local law enforcement due to concerns about the negative impact on tourism. Plus what is the skill level, training, experience of law enforcement in these 3rd world countries with respect to conducting proper and thorough investigations, securing crime scenes, forensic analysis of evidence, DNA, fingerprints, etc.

 

[otto]

I'm not wealthy so I don't know this (lol) but if you wanted to bring back cash from one country to your home country, wouldn't you just wire it or e-transfer it.....versus bringing back actual literal cash tho? Plus if you bring back more than, say, $10,000 don't you have to declare it and pay some kind of taxes etc on it when going thru customs?

I still would like to know how whoever did this was able to subdue a 6'6" former soldier who looks, from pictures, to be in good shape? IMO they'd have had to kill him first, she was a pretty petite lady from what I have read.

And what's the deal with them each having had duct tape only on their respective right wrists....but not bound together? Though I guess at some point a killer would have to cut the duct tape to 'free up' the victims so that he could get them out of a vehicle and to their final resting place.

I always cringe when I read about tragedies like these that happen in touristy locations, that full and thorough investigations won't be done by their local law enforcement due to concerns about the negative impact on tourism. Plus what is the skill level, training, experience of law enforcement in these 3rd world countries with respect to conducting proper and thorough investigations, securing crime scenes, forensic analysis of evidence, DNA, fingerprints, etc.

She was a realtor in Toronto - a city with sky rocketing housing prices. She probably flipped homes in addition to selling for clients and very likely made a lot of money with commissions. Also, I don't think it takes much to appear as though having a "lot of money" in a place like Belize.

It would't surprise me if robbery the first assumption police had when they heard that a Canadian woman and USA man were missing, and it wouldn't surprise me if police are satisfied with deeming the case unsolvable based on that assumption.

 

[otto]

I'm curious about the sentence for murder in Belize. It must be very lenient if people murder for pocket money.

 

[dotr]

Do they mean hands or wrists bound with duct tape?

http://people.com/crime/missing-american-canadian-couple-dead-in-belize/

Char says the couple’s hands had been duct-taped

She notes that Drew did not have any conflicts in Belize and, she was told, the area where he lived had a low crime rate.

According to the State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council, the Corozal District had seven reported murders per 100,000 residents in 2016. (For comparison, there were 335 reported murders in New York City in 2016, according to the city’s statistics, or about four per 100,000 residents.)

Drew was born in Georgia but grew up in Nashville, Tennessee — the son of a singer-songwriter dad — and he attended college in North Carolina on a soccer and academic scholarship, Char says.

Until his death, David was often on the move, back and forth across the U.S. and internationally, his mom says. “He wasn’t going to stay still somewhere.”

After the Marines and his contractor job, having worked stints in Charleston, South Carolina, and on solar panel farms in California — with a period in between learning how to work on oil rigs in Texas — Drew headed to Belize, Char says.

On the day he disappeared, Drew was going to buy his plane ticket, Char says.

 

[kmclaren]

I'm curious about the sentence for murder in Belize. It must be very lenient if people murder for pocket money.

There were 2 Americans killed in Belize in 2015 - their killer was arrested and charged. There is little detail available about his sentence BUT he was just charged with another murder in March 2017 (a teen girl) so he was out of jail in well less than 2 years. His name is Shaylon Santos, his victims were Julian Christopher Jones and Paul David Signorino...