7 News Belize

Was Kimmie’s Club Questionable?
posted (June 27, 2014)
Tonight, questions persist about the massive blaze at Kimmie's Club on Wednesday morning. It gutted three buildings, and cost the life of 21 year old mother of three Jacqueline Arteaga - who was living in an apartment atop Kimmie's club.

Many of the questions center over whether Arteaga could have gotten out alive. Her boyfriend Dean Bodden told us that she was like a prisoner in the building - because dogs were kept at the stairs. Her mother said she wasn't a prisoner but had to wait for the owner to come to hold the dogs before she could come out.

Now to put the whole thing in context you'd have to understand that Kimmie's is not a normal bar or club by any classic definition. There's no nice way to say this, but it's one of those spots where there are waitresses who are also hostesses - and who will sit with patrons while they have a beer…or 10. Jacky Arteaga worked from time to time as one of those persons. Her boyfriend said it was fine by him:..

Dean Bodden, Boyfriend of Jacqueline Arteaga
"Yes she worked at a bar and at a bar you have to entertain men, so then I already got use to that because I am from the streets too, so I know what is going on.... it's not like I go at the bar to watch her, no that is just for the bar to make money. I don't have a problem with that. I have never found to be cheating on me or nobody came and tell me that she went with another man - nothing like that."

And while Bodden was confident as to where he stood with his girlfriend, we have received troubling reports from others, including a neighbor - who tells us that there were strange, troubling sounds of females in distress coming from a building right behind Kimmie's on a regular basis.

That opens itself to all kinds of questions - including the tough one of whether it was a hub for commercial sex workers. Indeed, that isn't what the story is about, but it may shed some light on why this young mother was trapped upstairs.

On Wednesday Daniel Ortiz asked the owner about commercial sex work:..

Daniel Ortiz
"They are suggesting that your business place, the night aspect of it was somehow connected to commercial sex work."

Voice of: Merlyn Moreira - owner of Kimmy's Bar
"That is a lie. I don't do that. Only 4 persons live upstairs."

Daniel Ortiz
"And it is for rent right?"

Voice of: Merlyn Moreira - owner of Kimmy's Bar
"Yes all for rent. Nobody could go upstairs. We have rooms just for the workers or for somebody who wants to rent rooms. We have 2 males, 1 female, Jacky and a person who lives with me."

Belize was recently put on a human trafficking watch list by the US Government.

We'll continue to follow the story.

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