7 News Belize

Pregnant Woman Savagely Murdered in Dangriga
posted (November 15, 2010)
And keeping it in the south - there is a gruesome murder to report out of Dangriga tonight.

A thirty-four year old pregnant Sheleen Camille Martinez was found raped and stabbed to death yesterday morning in that southern town.

Reports to Seven News are that sometime around 2 a.m yesterday morning Sheleen was seen alive in the vicinity where she was killed, but around 5:30 her lifeless body was discovered on the steps of a residence on George Price Drive.

Police reports are that they responded to the report around 6:00 yesterday morning when caretaker William Swazo, saw her on the step and he tried to wake her but she didn't respond. Police investigations led them to an unfinished building where they found underwear and a used condom.

Preliminary reports are that Martinez was raped and then stabbed about 8 times. The mother of seven children was said to frequent the streets in that town, however she never interfered with anyone for she hardly spoke apart from an occasional hello and smile.

So who could want Martinez killed? Well that is still the question on everyone's mind, including her mother.

Helen Cayetano, Mother of Deceased
"Sheleen was a quite person she has never been in trouble with anyone and she is always by herself, doesn't talk to anybody. She is just a quite person, she doesn't mess around, you would never see her with any company or friends, probably in the days of her going to school she had friends but after she stop school, I don't see her with anybody as friends. That is just her life, the way that she lives; that is just the life that she wants to live. When she comes here to Belize City she lives with me, she comes and she looks for her me. But other than that I don't know Sheleen to be a person that interfere with people or get in trouble with anybody or with the law."

Andrea Polanco
"So where was she living at the time Ms. Cayetano?"

Helen Cayetano, Mother of Deceased
"Well she was here with me up to Thursday. Thursday morning she left and she says that she was going to Dangriga and that was the last time I saw her."

Andrea Polanco
"So when you got the news that she was brutally murdered, what was the family's reaction?"

Helen Cayetano, Mother of Deceased
"When I got the news it was shocking because I didn't expect to hear that kind of news but every day you hear somebody get killed, every day you hear something happen, so even when that happen to your own you still question yourself why and that is my only question that I am asking now why would they want her dead, who would be so cruel to brutally murder her like that."

Andrea Polanco
"Did she ever tell you if anybody threatened her?"

Helen Cayetano, Mother of Deceased
"She is not that kind of person that will come and tell you 'mom, this is what happens' or 'mom, this one mess with me' she is not that kind of person, you would really have to sit down and talk to her one on one in order to get something form her and even when you talk to her one on one she would still not come up and say this is what happen. She is so quite that even when you question her she would not answer you."

Andrea Polanco
"I understand she was pregnant at the time."

Helen Cayetano, Mother of Deceased
"She was pregnant and I think she was about 6 - 8 months pregnant, so she was pregnant."

Andrea Polanco
"So she wasn't living with anybody maybe a common-law-husband?"

Helen Cayetano, Mother of Deceased
"She wasn't living with anyone, she was between Belize and Dangriga most of the time but when she is ready to have her baby would come up here with me and have her baby up here. "

Someone was detained and questioned in connection with Martinez's death but was later released.

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