Courtney Weatherburne reporting
On Saturday evening, Cayo residents gathered behind the barricade tape at Betty's Beauty Salon.

There were there looking on as the police scanned the area and processed this grisly scene. 3 bloodied bodies lay on the floor inside the salon - the woman on the far right near the table was 29 year old Daisy Miralda. The woman sprawled on her stomach was her sister in law 40 year old Salon owner Miriam Mai affectionately called Betty. And the man in the middle is Mai's ex common-law husband, Andy Bustillos - who is the suspected murderer.

The incident happened on Saturday evening after 5:00. Miralda and a few friends were hanging out at the Salon as Mai was blow drying a customer's hair. That's when Bustillos came in with a present for Mai. We spoke with one of the friends who was there and she gave us the shocking account

Eyewitness and Friend
"Daisy was sitting at the rear at the back door and my friend and I were sitting beside each other. About 5 minutes after, the boy came in with a SMART bag and handed it to Betty. She told him she didn't want anything from him. Then he threw the bag on a chair in the corner and he went straight to my friend Daisy, took out the gun, shoot and came straight to me. When he shot the gun jammed and I ran, then he shot at my friend beside me and I thought he was dead also. He saw the ending of what happened afterwards because he ran outside. The customer was right there too and she ran behind him. So he pointed directly at our forehead and I put up my purse, I knew it wouldn't save me but the gun had jammed and so I ran. I ran down the hill and I all through the bobbed wire just to save my life because I thought that he knew he missed me and he was coming for me. Betty was the last one at the end. My friend who was beside me said he took his time, he held Betty for a little while and calmed down and afterwards he shot her and just released her. She fell on the ground."

Courtney Weatherburne
"And then he shot himself?"

Eyewitness and Friend
"Yes and then he shot himself."

The eyewitness told us that she had met Bustillos at his workplace before she went to the salon and after overhearing a phone call he made, she realized he had something planned.

Eyewitness and Friend
"I was at SMART and he was working at SMART. He was talking to me good, he was asking me if i was okay, and I told him I was. I told Daisy and Betty when I reached there, we were just finished talking about him when I told them I heard him over the phone calling someone and telling them if anything happened to him to make sure they collected his pay. Daisy said he just said that because he knew I was there and he would have come to tell me, she said he's not crazy to do anything. As we finished talking about him, he came in. he had this plan."

Courtney Weatherburne
"You were in there, you saw everything, you were almost killed."

Eyewitness and Friend
"Yes I was almost killed. It would have been 4 bodies instead of 2. All I can say is that God intervened and I guess it wasn't my time. He had the gun straight in my face."

But what happened in the salon was the culmination of years of abuse from Bustillos. Mai's mother told us that just last Sunday Bustillo broke into her house and attacked her. After he beat her badly, he took her to Orange Walk but they were stopped at a check point. Police saw Mai's bruised face and sent him on a bus to Orange Walk and told her to drive back home.

Maria Olga Rodriguez, Mother of Mai
"This last Sunday they said she went out and when she came in, they said she didn't know because they took off the board from the window, came in and fixed it good. He was hiding in there and she didn't know. She went in and they said that he choked her and drew a big cut on her face and dragged her in the yard like a horse."

But the sad thing is, Rodriguez and the family say they had no idea what Mai was enduring all those years until recently.

Maria Olga Rodriguez, Mai's Mother
"I didn't know anything, all those years my daughter was suffering and we didn't know anything. When he said that he was going to kill her, she knew and everyone knew."

Sandra Rodriguez, Mai's Sister
"We found out that she got a restraining order. We were happy about it because we said that he couldn't go close to her but he didn't worry. He violated that and she never did come to us. That's what hurt us, because she never did come to us for any help. She didn't even say what was happening to her, nothing."

But Mai's friends knew everything, still, she asked them to keep it a secret.

Voice of Melanie Flota - Friend
"She was well known in Cayo and she always kept her personal business private and that's what she begged us to always keep. Being a friend of hers, she begged me to keep her secrets and her problems between us friends."

Courtney Weatherburne
"After this situation, do you have some level of regret that you didn't speak out?"

Voice of Melanie Flota - Friend
"Yes I sure do, that's why it hurt me deep inside. I can't explain why I didn't. I personally talked to her about it every day, asking if she would want me to tell her brothers or if she wants me to go and report it to the station and she said no."

Mai also feared if she spoke out, Bustillos would harm her family as he had threatened to do many times.

Maria Olga Rodriguez, Mother of Mai
"She couldn't open her mouth to say anything even if she wanted to because he told her if she was to go and report him, he'd go way to San Pedro to kill her son and maybe she felt he might have done us something. That was why she didn't open her mouth."

But Mai did try to ask for help, in fact she went to Andy' boss at Anchor Security in Belmopan and told him about their abusive relationship. She even pleaded to take away his gun but he didn't listen to her.

Sandra Rodriguez, Mai's Sister
"The thing that hurts us was that this never had to happen if he (his boss) did what he had to do because it was him who bailed him out the first time when he got the restraining order. He went and bailed him out."

Courtney Weatherburne
"Andy's boss?"

Sandra Rodriguez, Mai's Sister
"Yes, according to what we heard is that her friends told her that she spoke to him the Monday and asked him to please move him from here and to not give him any weapon. He told her yes he'd do it but he didn't really bother about it. That's what really hurts us and pissed us off."

But regardless of all that, Mai's friends, family and the community should or could have done - nothing will bring these beloved women back. Now only the wreckage of Mai's and Bustillos' toxic relationship remains.

Sandra Rodriguez, Mai's Sister
"She was always happy before she was with him. She was a nice and beautiful girl. I really don't understand how this happened. She was so wonderful, she always came here with us every Sunday. She always made sure she was here with her mom to spend the day and eat here. But all of a sudden she changed because of Andy, he just controlled her. He really destroyed her."

That relationship also left Miralda's family devastated.

Sherelie Miralda, Miralda's Sister
"The hardest part for me was not being able to be here with her, not being able to see her. Just in the day were texting and like I cannot believe it. This cannot be happening, this is surreal. I cannot believe it."

Manuel Rodriguez, Miralda's Ex- Common Law
"She was a very smart girl, has a good heart, and always willing to help anybody. She could never say no if they asked her for help. I think she was very special in that way."

Courtney Weatherburne
"She was the mother of your 3 kids?"

Manuel Rodriguez, Miralda's Ex - Common Law
"Yes we've got 3 kids, Chris, Stephanie and Jasmine. So it hurts me a lot that she's gone now. We still had a good relationship even though we weren't together. Ever since, I still miss her right now because she was very good."

While the family home will now be solemn and empty. So will the salon that was always filled with laughter and love.

Andy Bustillos shot himself in the head but survived. He is in a stable condition at the KHMH. Mai was the mother of 3 children so was Miralda. There was another element to the story - residents were saying that Mai was having a relationship with a police officer and that Bustillos found out and killed Mai because of that but when we asked Mai's friend about that she denied it and said it simply was not true.