Tonight Cayo police are close to charging a 21 year old man from San Ignacio for the death of 24 year old Kayla Burgess.
When we left you last night, it was with the news that Burgess, who is originally from Independence, but lives in Belmopan - had been found murdered. Her alleged hostage taker, demanded a ransom, and then killed her. At least that is how the early narrative went.
Well tonight, it appears that was all a ruse, a smokescreen to cover the fact that she had been killed before any ransom message was sent, and the killer is believed to have been a boyfriend - who likely killed her at his house in the Kontiki Area of San Ignacio, and then took her body in her vehicle out to Bullet Tree to make it seem like some Guatemalan hostage business - similar to the one that happened in that same village in January.
It is a plot that almost boggles the imagination. Daniel Ortiz spoke to the family of the deceased today:
Daniel Ortiz reporting
The family of 24 year-old Kayla Burgess received a text from her phone late yesterday evening that they must provide $250,000 or else she would be killed:
Caral Anthony Pandy - Brother of Deceased
"By trying to call the phone and no one answered and when this guy answered I had the gut feeling that something bad had happened because that's not like Kayla, Kayla always communicated with us."
So, initially, it looked like a case of kidnapping when her family first contacted police about the plight of 24 year-old Kayla Burgess.
Little did they know that by the end of the day, they would find her dead.
Sergeant Jaime Gonzalez - OC, CIB San Ignacio Police
"Sometime after 5pm yesterday Thursday the 20th March, we received information from our counterparts in Belmopan City of a possible kidnapping and that the person was last located in the vicinity of Bullet Tree Village. We responded to the area, we later located a vehicle with the description given to us. That is a Kia Sorrento vehicle, gold in color with Stann Creek license 
plates. A view inside the vehicle revealed that there was a body of a female to the very rear of the vehicle. The vehicle was properly locked; she was laying in the back part of the vehicle. She had a plastic cuff type around her neck and she had a plastic bag over her head. The female we found inside the vehicle she was identified as Kayla Burgess, 24 years old of a Belmopan City address and she was identified to us by her aunt Corine Rudon of Ontario Village."
So far the lead that police are going on is that she had a fight with a man here at this house in San Ignacio, which led to her being strangled. The killer then used her vehicle, drove it to Bullet Tree and left it here, a few hundred feet from the Village Substation, where it was discovered.
A 21 year old male student and his 18 year old girlfriend are detained. Police say he has scratches on the left shoulder, left side of chest, back, left side of face, neck and right forearm. In his vehicle they found the keys for the Kia Sorento. He has reportedly confessed.
Caral Anthony Pandy - Brother of Deceased
"At the interview the guy said that he and my sister get in an altercation and he strangled her with a cord around her neck and then used my sister vehicle to move the body and the girlfriend drove his car and they came back."
Sergeant Jaime Gonzalez - OC, CIB San Ignacio Police
"So far he has not provided us full detail of what was the motive, but we believe that it could have been because of a love affair situation."
And so if that is true, the whole kidnapping narrative was a ruse to cover up the murder.
Daniel Ortiz
"Do you believe that it at any point was a ransom situation went bad?"
Caral Anthony Pandy - Brother of Deceased
"It was no ransom situation; it was just a cover up. She was already dead."
Daniel Ortiz
"Do you guys believe the same thing or...?"
Sergeant Jaime Gonzalez - OC, CIB San Ignacio Police
"Yes we do, we concur with what you are saying and what the family are saying."
Caral Anthony Pandy - Brother of Deceased
"It's very hard on us, my mom, Kayla is everything to my mom, she can't even hold up. The honest truth is that I am the only one that is standing up strong right now for them. Kayla, this Cayo area, when I heard the area Bullet Tree, that's when I thought the worst of it, I know several incidents around here were people got kidnapped and stuff like that right. When I heard it I just thought the worst."
According to our information, 2 broken acrylic nails, a bloody towel, and a bloody slipper were found at Vinnie Garbutt's home. His girlfriend is also being held, though she is only believed to have picked him up after he dropped Kayla's vehicle and the body in Bullett Tree. When we checked back with the investigating officers from San Ignacio this evening, we were told that the decision from the DPP's office still is pending as to whether or not the two persons will be charged.
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