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

[fred&edna]

Live Streaming Video on YouTube (it's offline)
[video]https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC823EN3FaKJ4Pk_ZIcp34LA/live[/video]


News 5 Live Video on Facebook

Click "play" and wait for a bit to start playing. After the ads, the News starts around the 10:50 mark.

https://www.facebook.com/News5Live/videos/1279848548802680/

John expat living on ground floor....hmmm

Is this the place?

[video=youtube;DXo7-Ii3-GY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXo7-Ii3-GY[/video]

 

[LadyL]

robbery could've been the motive even if it was her tenant but is this a foreigner vacationing or a local who pays her rent for the months she's not there?

 

[LietKynes]

So according to the Belize Staff Sarg. who did the interview, the doctor who performed the autopsy, and concluded that they died by strangulation, performed the autopsy there at the site they were found. This is bizarre. How can you do a proper autopsy out in the field?

RSBM

Indeed.

And if they were so badly decomposed that their bodies were TOXIC --- how could it be determined that they perished from strangulation ?
I've not studied in depth about human decomp. ; but wouldn't their bodies be fairly intact after 5 days, even with the heat ?
Never heard of an autopsy being carried out at the scene of the crime. Ever.
Not that it couldn't happen. But in developed countries the deceased are usually transported to a morgue !

 

[LietKynes]

robbery could've been the motive even if it was her tenant but is this a foreigner vacationing or a local who pays her rent for the months she's not there?

RSBM

Good question. "John" ... who ?

 

[otto]

Not that I think she did but to play devil's advocate, Scotty's Bar is an ex-pat bar and that night there was her farewell party before her return to Canada, as has been reported in MSM...so I'd think she likely knew everyone there and wouldn't have taken the same safety precautions had it been a bar more geared to non ex-pats, etc

It's also possible the statement was made that she/they had lot of money on them/in their possession at the bar, because when their bodies were found they still had a large amount of money on them (if robbery hadn't been the motive, which I don't believe it was)

I think police looked at the missing battery and concluded robbery. If they were robbed, it's impossible to say how much money they had with them. It makes no sense for police to say that they had a lot of money in the bar because no one but the victims knows how much money they had in their pocket at the restaurant. We know that they had travel money and that the money was with the passports at Francesca's house.

 

[LayzeeDayzee]

The Belize police wanted to cremate the body while Drew's brother was on the plane heading down there and the FBI stepped in to ensure that the body was intact when the brother arrived. That's a bit over the top, isn't it?

Tho - after the bodies were out in the Belize heat for 5-6 days and were understandably very badly decomposed, that would mean the bodies were in a pretty gruesome state (decomp, putrefaction, skin slippage, etc etc). From what I've been reading, a decomposing body can produce over 30 chemical compounds (many volatile). No idea what their laws/regulations are, from a medical examiner's office/public safety (staff handling bodies at a ME's office) perspective, re: handling and dealing with such badly decomposed bodies?

 

[LadyL]

I thought it is Whispering Pines as previously mentioned - there are two photos of her at the link

https://www.facebook.com/Whispering...2596528848193/712625878845258/?type=1&theater

John expat living on ground floor....hmmm

Is this the place?

[video=youtube;DXo7-Ii3-GY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXo7-Ii3-GY[/video]

 

[Meletx]

Great find, thanks Hazel!
Did i hear correctly something about the tenant flying a plane?

That's what I heard and that he was flying around to see what was going on, which I'm assuming the guy was referring to when the police were searching? Not quite sure on that part. The red truck was still sitting there during the interview, and they stated "Jason" drives a red truck.

 

[fred&edna]

I thought it is Whispering Pines as previously mentioned - there are two photos of her at the link

https://www.facebook.com/Whispering...2596528848193/712625878845258/?type=1&theater

I was just going by what I heard/saw in the news report linked by Hazel. Heaven knows I've been lotsa wrong before!

 

[CARIIS]

Belize-War Veteran -gfriend strangled to death while on vacation

Found Bound and Killed After Vacation in Belize: 'Things Are Not Adding Up'

Family and friends of an American man found dead with his girlfriend in Belize on Monday - after they vanished last week - say they are now searching for answers.



"I understand that [Belize investigators] are doing the best they can, I'm sure, but there are questions that need to be answered," .. Drew DeVoursey, a 36-year-old Marine Corps veteran who police reportedly said was strangled at some point before Monday afternoon........................





Trinh tells PEOPLE that her fiancé, Brandon Barfield, is in Belize now with DeVoursney's younger brother, David............


Drew and his 52-year-old girlfriend, Francesca Matus, were last seen late on April 25 at a bar in Corozal Town,



.....................couple was leaving a farewell party for Matus, who planned to fly to Toronto the next day, Trinh says.


She says neither drank very much, and they headed home


Drew and Matus were reported missing after a friend arrived at her home on April 26 to take them to the airport for her flight,


Matus' vehicle - the same one they left in from the bar - was reportedly found Sunday in a sugar cane field.



On Monday afternoon, about 10 miles away, the couple's bodies were reportedly found in the village of Chan Chen, their hands duct-taped. They had been strangled to death, . But Trinh says that, according to the U.S. Embassy, the bodies were too decomposed for an autopsy

Is that cause of heat sounds fast no?

.
"There are so many things that don't make sense," she says.



authorities said the body was a "health hazard." It was not immediately clear if that had changed.



The fact that Matus' vehicle was recovered, and in good condition, is also troubling, Trinh says. "Things are not adding up. ... There's just a lot to look into."


He moved there in December. Char, his mom, said he bought four acres in Belize about four years ago, as an investment.)


Drew said it was "definitely a different place," Trinh recalls - and that it seemed that crime had increased.




"I don't know anything yet," she said.Barfield and David plan to return to the U.S. on Thursday with Drew's remains, Trinh says. From there, they hope to hire a private investigator to return to Corozal



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...hings-are-not-adding-up/ar-BBAI0lw?li=BBnb7Kz

 

[otto]

Why would a tenant wait until they were at a restaurant to rob them, and not take the money that was sitting with the passport ... unless robbery is not the motive, and police were wrong when they claimed that the victims had a lot of money on them at the restaurant and the motive was robbery.

Police have jumped from random robbery for money that they probably did not have with them to someone who lived in her house - is he another ex-pat? I'm more interested in evidence and facts that led police to this suspect than I am in knowing his last name. Was he at the dinner and was his transportation left at the restaurant hours after the couple left? Did he give Francesca a down payment for property and not receive property? What led police to suspect a tenant? Why would the "suspect" who was living in her house while she flew to Canada for six months decide it was a good idea to threaten and murder her?

 

[LadyL]

it's on Serenity Sands road but the villa they showed in the video definitely looks like Whispering Pines

ETA - not identical though! so I'm not sure either!

I was just going by what I heard/saw in the news report linked by Hazel. Heaven knows I've been lotsa wrong before!

 

[otto]

Tho - after the bodies were out in the Belize heat for 5-6 days and were understandably very badly decomposed, that would mean the bodies were in a pretty gruesome state (decomp, putrefaction, skin slippage, etc etc). From what I've been reading, a decomposing body can produce over 30 chemical compounds (many volatile). No idea what their laws/regulations are, from a medical examiner's office/public safety (staff handling bodies at a ME's office) perspective, re: handling and dealing with such badly decomposed bodies?

There must be a morgue somewhere in Belize.

 

[Meletx]

Also, if it was the tenant, it still doesn't really make sense because he would need at least one or two accomplices considering Drew's size and skills. Not sure how he could convince people to help him over his dispute with Francesca if she had demanded he move out or she didn't give his money back or some other scenario regarding his living there?

 

[lorelaigilmore]

I don't see it mentioned here unless I missed it, but I read that 2 people were detained in the murders, is that true?? Anyone?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[fred&edna]

There was a J McA who was in all kinds of trouble in Belize in 2012. Fled to US. Uhmmmm surely can't be him.

Better if I just sit on my hands.

 

[dotr]

I think police looked at the missing battery and concluded robbery. If they were robbed, it's impossible to say how much money they had with them. It makes no sense for police to say that they had a lot of money in the bar because no one but the victims knows how much money they had in their pocket at the restaurant. We know that they had travel money and that the money was with the passports at Francesca's house.

rbbm.
Just a thought, but could that just be a colloquialism for money invested in the bar?
speculation

 

[LayzeeDayzee]

That's what I heard and that he was flying around to see what was going on, which I'm assuming the guy was referring to when the police were searching? Not quite sure on that part. The red truck was still sitting there during the interview, and they stated "Jason" drives a red truck.

No, the video showed a blue truck and the local being interviewed said lower tenant's name was "John."

 

[rsd1200]

Wow, LE in Belize is taking a beating from the folks here. They certainly may have jumped the gun with the "robbery" motive but otherwise they seem to be forthcoming with information. I don't post much but I've followed dozens of cases on here where for years US LE releases virtually no information concerning a crime while the case grows colder and colder and everyone is still saying they're dotting their i's and crossing their t's. There is bad and corrupt policing everywhere but I don't think it's a given just because they're a third-world country.

I think this is why U.S. LE has started not releasing anything.

 

[Sprigs]

I found this strange:

http://www.7newsbelize.com/index.php#story1
A memorial service for Francesca Matus - who lived in Corozal for 4 years - will be held on Thursday in Corozal Town. Their families were expected to arrive today. To accommodate them, police kept the bodies on site as they were found so that the families could see them. Drew Thomas De Voursey had been in Belize for about 6 months, and reportedly did own land here. Their cell phones were not found and the battery had been stolen from the vehicle.

Surely had the bodies been autopsied, they would no longer be as they were found - if a proper autopsy had been done anyway.