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

[dotr]

http://7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=40217

..right now, it's the theft that police are focussing on. He's accused of stealing from a Casino in Placencia - but it's not your regular case of theft. 7News has learned that its actually a dispute between the owners of the casino - some of whom hired this Canadian to collect their property and drive it out of the place

 

[Kamille]

Sounds like JD is involved in a misunderstanding regarding something he was hired to do for the owner of a casino against the wishes of other owners. I think it's pretty far fetched to think that he'd then go on to commit a double murder while under investigation for that. What would be his motive? I think it's possible he's being used as a scapegoat here because of his connection to FM and the current investigation against him.

MOO

 

[otto]

https://kqradio.com/index.php/2017/...ot-killed-for-theft-canadian-detained-police/ABC video.
“Good Morning America”
http://abcnews.go.com/International...led-theft-canadian-detained/story?id=47203560

What's the name of the retired FBI man who runs with hysteria?

 

[otto]

OT .. sugar cane fields are burned to remove the loose leaves from the stalks, and frighten away poisonous snakes ahead of harvesting.

Thank you. I didn't know that. So the sugar cane was not going to be burned, but instead the stalks remaining from the harvest. How many sugar cane crops can be harvested per year in Belize, and are there regular harvest days ... like Canadian Thanksgiving?

 

[otto]

64ish yr old man? Jilted lover, former spouse, business partner?

Jealousy has always been a possibility given that Drew and Francesca had only been together for 2-3 months. Does that mean that robbery and shady realtor are off the table? Did Francesca have an old boyfriend living in any of her rentals?

 

[kmclaren]

For the record, Matus owned 2 properties in Belize.

So the house that she lived in that had a lower level suite and what other one?

 

[samsmom]

Just wanted to put in that manual strangulation could have been misreported. Maybe something was left at the scene to imply strangulation, you know, rope or a tool. IMO.
This case has pulled at my heartstrings a bit. I hope for justice for this couple and their families.

 

[Gardenista]

Just wanted to put in that manual strangulation could have been misreported. Maybe something was left at the scene to imply strangulation, you know, rope or a tool. IMO.
This case has pulled at my heartstrings a bit. I hope for justice for this couple and their families.

I had that same thought. I'm hoping they can do another autopsy and determine if strangulation is correct.

 

[Suglo]

Marijuana cultivation in Belize started in the districts of Corozal and Orange Walk in the 1960s. The marijuana boom was a response to declining sugar prices in the world market, and marijuana production and sale became a lucrative and financially rewarding business.[ii] Sugar cane growers turned to marijuana production as a way to make ends meet. However, marijuana production and narcotics sales did not end there. Belize’s perfect location as a drug transshipment point, its open borders, free trade agreements, and large, unpopulated tracts of land has provided significant opportunity for drug production and trafficking to thrive.

This is correct. My father was Belize's lead DEA agent in the early 1990s. Marijuana cultivation and subsequent shipping to the US was a major problem. They worked in conjunction with local LE to locate and spray fields before the harvest. He and my mother lived there for 3 years. It was a dangerous assignment but better than Colombia where one of his friends who also worked for the DEA was murdered by narcotraficantes.

 

[wendybtn]

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.

While this may be "customary" in Belize, wouldn't Belize LE be aware or made aware that this is far from the norm in its Northern neighbors?! Plus, if true, more evidence, perhaps, is being lost.

 

[andreww]

Wondering out loud if JD was at the bar and left with Drew & Francesca?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[fred&edna]

http://7newsbelize.com/sstory.php?nid=40217

"...7News has learned that its actually a dispute between the owners of the casino - some of whom hired this Canadian to collect their property and drive it out of the place"

BBM Am I the only one confused by this?

And, has anyone found prior news reports (unrelated to the disappearance/murders) of such a casino dispute?

 

[andreww]

While this may be "customary" in Belize, wouldn't Belize LE be aware or made aware that this is far from the norm in its Northern neighbors?! Plus, if true, more evidence, perhaps, is being lost.

I think they are referring to the fact that Drew's family had requested that the body not be cremated before they got there. I believe "On site" means at the morgue, not at the crime scene. Just clumsy english IMO.

 

[andreww]

"...7News has learned that its actually a dispute between the owners of the casino - some of whom hired this Canadian to collect their property and drive it out of the place"

BBM Am I the only one confused by this?

And, has anyone found prior news reports (unrelated to the disappearance/murders) of such a casino dispute?

I take it to mean that the casino was owned by a group. One or more of those investors decided to bail and they hired JD to remove their property from the premises. Either the remaining owners are disputing what should or shouldn't have been taken, or JD took more than he was supposed to.

 

[Tssiemer]

I am so not caught up been needing a lot of Trump therapy in new forum

but saw this and thought of you guy s

Canadian detained in death of woman in Belize

It kinda bugged me what is the need for "Canadain"


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...eath-of-woman-in-belize/ar-BBAKOhr?li=BBnb7Kz

Because she's Canadian? Yeah?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dushi]

As of 2 p.m. local time Thursday, police were still questioning the Canadian man, along with others.

"It's still ongoing but I'm not really sure where we've gotten with it, if anything tangible has actually come out of that interview," said Martinez.

He said those being questioned aren't yet considered suspects.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/7...ioning-over-death-of-toronto-woman-in-belize/

 

[dotr]

http://www.torontosun.com/2017/05/05/ontario-man-reportedly-to-be-charged-in-belize-slayings-idd

Ontario man reportedly to be charged in Belize slayings


By Brad Hunter, Toronto Sun First posted: Friday, May 05, 2017 10:55 AM

An Ontario man is now reportedly the prime suspect in the double murder of fellow Canadian Francesca Matus and her American boyfriend in Belize.

According to Channel5Belize.com, John Deshaies, 54, initially helped with the search for Matus, 52, and Drew DeVoursney, 36, after they vanished on April 25.
Sources in the country said Deshaies — who appears to work in construction and has been living in the country for three years — rented the lower half of Matus’s sprawling beachside mansion.
Deshaies, who had been taken into custody over an alleged theft at a casino in Placencia, will reportedly be charged on Friday.
After that, he will be returned to Corozal, where Matus lived.
“We have one person we believe can assist us in our investigation,” was all police Senior Supt. Dennis Arnold would tell local reporters.
Detectives have backed away from their initial theory that the slayings were a robbery gone awry, and are exploring if it was a land deal that soured

.

 

[dotr]

http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/145784

Reporter

“Often times these crimes may involve someone with some familiarity or intimacy because he’s an ex-marine, according to his physical description, six foot six if I’m not mistaken. It’s not someone lightly taken on. Are you able to say if the suspect may have had some familiarity that these people were not on their guard? Because taking down a six foot six marine and strangling him, it wouldn’t appear to be a quite easy thing, you’d need a very large or a significant number of people to do that.”

Sr. Supt. Dennis Arnold
“At this point the investigation is still in its infancy stage and we are looking on that angle also. At this point we cannot say.”

Viewers please note: This Internet newscast is a verbatim transcript of our evening television newscast. Where speakers use Kriol, we attempt to faithfully reproduce the quotes using a standard spelling system.

 

[fred&edna]

I take it to mean that the casino was owned by a group. One or more of those investors decided to bail and they hired JD to remove their property from the premises. Either the remaining owners are disputing what should or shouldn't have been taken, or JD took more than he was supposed to.

Right. Thanks! I actually understood the basics. I was just thinking that the owners would have an attorney handle receipt of any "property" (it would have been done by/under/with legal measures). I guess it's possible JD was hired by the owners' attorney... dunno.

 

[Wondergirl]

Here is the house, and JD's blue truck, along with a description of what one witness described at the house.

DM:
“Who is Mister John?”

JO:
“Well to me it look like he is living at the downstairs of the house because every morning sometimes he goes out and he doesn’t come back until the night or evening before I went home. To me, I see Mister John live over there, but I don’t know what’s his family or those stuff. But to me, I think so, he is renting over there.”

DM:

“Have you seen Mister John since then?”

JO:

“Yap because he was helping the other white guys because he went to rent an airplane and he was flying all over here and seeing what’s going on, but from then I doesn’t see him again.”

Sr. Supt. Dennis Arnold [File: May 2[SUP]nd[/SUP], 2017]

“It’s about a mile and a half on the main road and a mile in a feeder road in a cane field, yes we had saw the two bodies—the male is partially on top of the female. Scenes of Crime were called in, scene was processed; the body was in an advance state of decomposition where the doctors were called in and the autopsy was done on site. Upon conclusion of the autopsy, the doctors conclude that the case of death was massive strangulation.”

http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/145784

Duane Moody (stand up)
“A few yards down this path in a cane field in the outskirts of the village of Chan Chen, Corozal the bodies of Canadian national Francesca Matus and American national Drew Thomas DeVoursney were discovered by a canero just before five p.m. on Monday. While their hands were bound with duct tape, they were manually strangled to death.”

http://http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/145723