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

[MaryG12]

138 murders for population of 300,000?

I'm sorry, but that's insane.

Belize sounds like a very dangerous place to me.

JMO

WG

Dangerous is right - that is downright scary!

 

[Quiet Time]

I see my post has already been posted...sorry didn't catch it as I scrolled thru..

 

[B00Mer]

138 murders for population of 300,000?

I'm sorry, but that's insane.

Belize sounds like a very dangerous place to me.

JMO

WG

...and the US State Dept hasn't put it on a watch list.. I wonder why?

Boycott Belize - Dangers in Paradise

 

[dotr]

There is a good pic of deshais in daily mail, I can't figure out how to post link on tapatalk


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...elize-victim-s-best-friend.html#ixzz4gJeAVdXu

 

[Satchie]

138 murders for population of 300,000?

I'm sorry, but that's insane.

Belize sounds like a very dangerous place to me.

JMO

WG

I guess it's not generally understood that Belize is a poor country with a very high proportion (over 30% of the population) of young, unemployed boys and men who survive in urban ghettos by turning to crime. This is the tragic situation in many parts of the world, including Central America, Africa, the Middle East and IMO, leads to intolerable living conditions for millions of people. It does create a bit more dangerous situation for tourists, but most of the crimes are within gangs and urban neighbourhoods.
http://hir.harvard.edu/article/?a=7296

 

[LayzeeDayzee]

If it was allegedly one or more of the shareholders of the Casino who hired JD to remove all that stuff from it, would be curious to know if FM and DD were shareholders, and perhaps the ones who hired him to do it, and they paid with their lives?

Also - consider the equipment that was removed from that casino......data servers, computers, etc. Why would anyone want them removed? Did they perhaps contain evidence of shady casino practices? Things being rigged and patrons of casino being ripped off? cooked books? money laundering?

 

[dotr]

...and the US State Dept hasn't put it on a watch list.. I wonder why?

Boycott Belize - Dangers in Paradise

Welcome to Ws BOOMer!
A shame that such incredible beauty is spoiled by such ugliness, imo.
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/belize

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/country/belize.html

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.

It is believed that several credit card fraud rings are currently active in Belize, particularly in San Pedro.

Scams occur in Belize, especially in resort areas. Tourists in general are particularly vulnerable to these crimes, resulting in visitors being pick-pocketed, robbed and/or extorted. See the Department of State and the FBI pages for information on scams.

 

[dotr]

rbbm
http://amandala.com.bz/news/canadian-american-lovers-strangled-death/

May 6 2017

While there are conflicting reports as to the number of suspects arrested, Senior Superintendent of Police, Dennis Arnold, has only confirmed the detention of one man. He is a Canadian national identified as John Deshaies, who was a tenant of Matus, our sources revealed.
Information to our newspaper is that he was not pleased with her decision to sell her home. We are told that she had already identified a buyer and had successfully negotiated the terms of the sale. Senior Supt. Arnold revealed that threats were recently made against Matus. However, he was reluctant to share details and no official police report had been made.

 

[PaxBelize]

Good afternoon. I live in Belize. I am an immigrant. I've been here well over a decade. This murder, like all murders in Belize, is a tragedy for the community, friends and loved ones. Even though double and multiple murders are common in the USA and there were probably several during the same week there, it seems that people enjoy the 'trouble in paradise' theme and become particularly interested in murders that happen in beautiful and exotic places.

I note that there are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings about Belize in discussions on this topic and I am happy to answer any questions. We all want the murderers brought to justice as much as anyone else does. There really is no conspiracy to pin this on a non Belizean. Just to put it into perspective there were two very nasty murders committed (allegedly as they haven't been prosecuted yet) upon Belizeans by Canadians in the past couple of years. One was very close to my home but the suspect fled the country before he could be prosecuted. The other is still in custody for beheading a local pastor. So, it's not all a one way street. The truth is that most victims of crime in Belize are poor Belizeans and most murder victims are young Belizean men, mainly in Belize City.

Our police force are sorely underfunded (cops earn between 100 & 200 USD a week for the most part), under trained, poorly resourced and many have to second jobs to survive. We have almost no forensic capabilities and the morgue is tiny. Normal practice is to cremate any decomposed bodies as quickly as possible, not to hide evidence, but simply because there is no place to keep them. There are no embalming services or anything of that nature.

To understand why Belize law enforcement is so poorly funded, please try to imagine running a country on taxes from a population of people smaller than most USA towns. Maybe 30-40% of Belizeans pay tax. Half of Belizeans are under 18. Unemployment is high.

Belizeans are kind, intelligent, hard working and friendly people. They are very upset about this. They do not hate foreigners - although there will always be some horrible people who will say horrible things just like everywhere else. Foreigners are not targeted for being foreign. Some are targeted for perceived wealth combined with not being careful about the sort of people they let into their lives. The freedom and anything goes type vibe that people are attracted to in Belize means that some people leave their brains on the border and start to think it's cool to hang out with those on the fringes of society who seem to want to be their friends.

If anyone has any questions for me that will help them clear up confusion, I'll do my best to answer as factually and truthfully as I can. What I will say is that it is unlikely that a conviction will ever happen and if it does, it may well be an unsafe one as we just don't have the policing skills to make it happen here yet. We're a very young country. We only got independence some 36 years ago. Try to imagine what things were like when the USA was only 36 years old. Can anyone say 'wild west'.

 

[LayzeeDayzee]

By the way, on the Gofndme acct started by Drew's best friend (Brandon), who is current down in Belize with Drew's brother - he posted an update on the page on May 4th that they/Drew's family is in the process of hiring a PI.

 

[Boone]

His brother David and as far as I know Drews military friend Brandon are there.

 

[DexterMorgan]

Yes, that's a high murder rate.

For comparison, US had 12 murders per 300,000 people; Canada had 4.5 per 300,000: Aust 3 per 300,000 and Great Britain had fewer than 3 per 300,000.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

Well Southside Chicago had 750 murders with a population of 800k where 400k are males. Also since males committed most of the homicides that were committed. Than it's safe to say that 600 murders of a population of 400k males took place in Southside Chicago.

South Side Chicago Population Demographics top

Total Population 862,469
Male Population 396,324
Female Population 466,143
Percent Change Since 2000 0.5 %
Percent Change Since 2010 0.3 %
Median Age 34.84


But anyways. I wouldn't go there either. Lol

 

[dotr]

Good afternoon. I live in Belize. I am an immigrant. I've been here well over a decade. This murder, like all murders in Belize, is a tragedy for the community, friends and loved ones. Even though double and multiple murders are common in the USA and there were probably several during the same week there, it seems that people enjoy the 'trouble in paradise' theme and become particularly interested in murders that happen in beautiful and exotic places.

I note that there are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings about Belize in discussions on this topic and I am happy to answer any questions. We all want the murderers brought to justice as much as anyone else does. There really is no conspiracy to pin this on a non Belizean. Just to put it into perspective there were two very nasty murders committed (allegedly as they haven't been prosecuted yet) upon Belizeans by Canadians in the past couple of years. One was very close to my home but the suspect fled the country before he could be prosecuted. The other is still in custody for beheading a local pastor. So, it's not all a one way street. The truth is that most victims of crime in Belize are poor Belizeans and most murder victims are young Belizean men, mainly in Belize City.

Our police force are sorely underfunded (cops earn between 100 & 200 USD a week for the most part), under trained, poorly resourced and many have to second jobs to survive. We have almost no forensic capabilities and the morgue is tiny. Normal practice is to cremate any decomposed bodies as quickly as possible, not to hide evidence, but simply because there is no place to keep them. There are no embalming services or anything of that nature.

To understand why Belize law enforcement is so poorly funded, please try to imagine running a country on taxes from a population of people smaller than most USA towns. Maybe 30-40% of Belizeans pay tax. Half of Belizeans are under 18. Unemployment is high.

Belizeans are kind, intelligent, hard working and friendly people. They are very upset about this. They do not hate foreigners - although there will always be some horrible people who will say horrible things just like everywhere else. Foreigners are not targeted for being foreign. Some are targeted for perceived wealth combined with not being careful about the sort of people they let into their lives. The freedom and anything goes type vibe that people are attracted to in Belize means that some people leave their brains on the border and start to think it's cool to hang out with those on the fringes of society who seem to want to be their friends.

If anyone has any questions for me that will help them clear up confusion, I'll do my best to answer as factually and truthfully as I can. What I will say is that it is unlikely that a conviction will ever happen and if it does, it may well be an unsafe one as we just don't have the policing skills to make it happen here yet. We're a very young country. We only got independence some 36 years ago. Try to imagine what things were like when the USA was only 36 years old. Can anyone say 'wild west'.

Thanks for the interesting and insightful post, welcome to Ws PaxBelize!
:welcome:

 

[PaxBelize]

Dexter, Belize is somewhat different to Chicago. Chicago is a city. Belize is a country. Belize City, like Chicago, is where most of our violent crime occurs. Belize is mostly jungle, has hundreds of beautiful atolls and is on the second largest barrier reef. There are still indigenous Maya people living in huts in villages with no electricity in Belize. So, the comparison isn't really a good one. Crimes of the nature of the murder of Francesca and Drew are extremely rare here.

 

[PaxBelize]

Thanks for the interesting and insightful post, welcome to Ws PaxBelize!
:welcome:

Thank you for the kind welcome dotr.

 

[Boone]

I'm not sure if anyone has already posted this but maybe JD went missing for a few days because he knew that Drew and Fran went missing, and probably past away. Knew they were also coming for him. It makes sense that the casino shareholders wanted him dead and sent someone to murder him because they didn't want the info out plus all the "stolen" electronics (almost $60k worth) that were on Frans property. So the "hit man" or the pissed off ex-shareholder of the casino figured Drew and Fran knew about the stuff or figured they were in on it so murdered them too. �� Just a theory.

 

[Dushi]

Welcome to Boone and PaxBelise:welcome:

 

[Boone]

 

[musicaljoke]

Good afternoon. I live in Belize. I am an immigrant. I've been here well over a decade. This murder, like all murders in Belize, is a tragedy for the community, friends and loved ones. Even though double and multiple murders are common in the USA and there were probably several during the same week there, it seems that people enjoy the 'trouble in paradise' theme and become particularly interested in murders that happen in beautiful and exotic places.

I note that there are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings about Belize in discussions on this topic and I am happy to answer any questions. We all want the murderers brought to justice as much as anyone else does. There really is no conspiracy to pin this on a non Belizean. Just to put it into perspective there were two very nasty murders committed (allegedly as they haven't been prosecuted yet) upon Belizeans by Canadians in the past couple of years. One was very close to my home but the suspect fled the country before he could be prosecuted. The other is still in custody for beheading a local pastor. So, it's not all a one way street. The truth is that most victims of crime in Belize are poor Belizeans and most murder victims are young Belizean men, mainly in Belize City.

Our police force are sorely underfunded (cops earn between 100 & 200 USD a week for the most part), under trained, poorly resourced and many have to second jobs to survive. We have almost no forensic capabilities and the morgue is tiny. Normal practice is to cremate any decomposed bodies as quickly as possible, not to hide evidence, but simply because there is no place to keep them. There are no embalming services or anything of that nature.

To understand why Belize law enforcement is so poorly funded, please try to imagine running a country on taxes from a population of people smaller than most USA towns. Maybe 30-40% of Belizeans pay tax. Half of Belizeans are under 18. Unemployment is high.

Belizeans are kind, intelligent, hard working and friendly people. They are very upset about this. They do not hate foreigners - although there will always be some horrible people who will say horrible things just like everywhere else. Foreigners are not targeted for being foreign. Some are targeted for perceived wealth combined with not being careful about the sort of people they let into their lives. The freedom and anything goes type vibe that people are attracted to in Belize means that some people leave their brains on the border and start to think it's cool to hang out with those on the fringes of society who seem to want to be their friends.

If anyone has any questions for me that will help them clear up confusion, I'll do my best to answer as factually and truthfully as I can. What I will say is that it is unlikely that a conviction will ever happen and if it does, it may well be an unsafe one as we just don't have the policing skills to make it happen here yet. We're a very young country. We only got independence some 36 years ago. Try to imagine what things were like when the USA was only 36 years old. Can anyone say 'wild west'.

Wonderful post! Thank you for explaining these things. I'm going to write to my member of parliament and suggest that Canada pay the bill when Canadians commit serious crimes in countries such as Belize. It's not right that our criminals are sucking up your resources.

 

[dotr]

Timing.
https://www.belizehub.com/air-canada-launches-new-direct-flight-belize-toronto/