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Vinnie Garbutt Arraigned For Kayla’s Murder
posted (March 24, 2014)
21 Year-old Vinnie Garbutt, a resident of the Kontiki Area of San Ignacio, is on remand at prison tonight after he was arraigned for the murder of his girlfriend, 24 year-old Kayla Burgess, who was killed on Thursday afternoon.

Garbutt was arraigned this afternoon before Magistrate Nardia Morgan, on the single charge of murder. Because it's murder, no plea was taken, and he was remanded to prison until June 24 when he'll appear in court again.

As we told you, on Thursday evening, Burgess' family from Independence Village, received a text from Kayla's phone demanding a ransom of $250,000 or else she would be killed. They also got information in the form of another text message that she could possibly be in the Cayo District. Her family immediately alerted police, who conducted a sweep of the entire district, and her body was found in Bullet Tree Road inside her vehicle, a Kia Sorrento. The vehicle was locked, and when police got inside, they found Burgess with with a plastic bag over her face and a plastic tightener strapped around her neck.

The trail of the investigation led San Ignacio Police to Garbutt who was picked up along with his roommate, 18 year-old girl Faith Dueck. Police say Garbutt confessed to the crime. He also had the keys to Burgess' vehicle, scratches all over his body, as well as a bloody towel and a bloody pair of slippers at his home. With all that, police charged him over the weekend.

They believe that he killed her and then, cooked up the entire story of some Guatemalan hostage taking to try to cover up what he had done - going as far as to deposit the vehicle in Bullett Tree, which is close to Guatemala.

But his 18 year-old room-mate caught up in all of this is claiming innocence. As we told you police detained Faith Dueck on Thursday night, on the suspicion that she may have helped Garbutt dispose of Burgess' body and vehicle. The lead police were following was that she drove Garbutt's vehicle to him after he deposited Burgess's body and vehicle in Bullet Tree.

Today, her attorney Audrey Matura Shepherd issued a statement to the media saying, she is no accomplice in the death of 24 year old Kayla Burgess, and she too is as much a victim of the accused. The statement adds that quote, "To faith, it was not unusual to see Vinnie with Kayla's vehicle nor to learn that he dropped off Kayla or picked her up somewhere or even had to take the vehicle for Kayla somewhere, thus seeing him with the vehicle that Thursday did not send off any alarm bells to her." End quote.

The statement discloses that Dueck became his room-mate the Monday before the murder of Burgess. The statement adds that quote, "she mourns the death of Kayla whom she had come to know as one of Vinnie's many female friends. "

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