31 year old Elisa Hunter died yesterday evening at 5:00 pm. She's the 31 year old who was knocked down at mile eight and a half on Tuesday morning. The single mother was going to her work place at the Belize Recycling Company when a vehicle assigned to Foreign Minister Wilfred Elrington knocked her down. Hunter was flung violently across the pavement - we'd say as much as 40 feet - and was listed in a critical condition. 32 hours after the accident, she succumbed to her injuries. That happened at 5:00 yesterday and today we met the devastated family of the Central American Immigrant trying to hold things together under very difficult circumstances:
Ersi Hunter, Sister of Deceased
"Only a miracle we expected, and the miracle never reached."
Jules Vasquez reporting
That was the miracle needed to save 31 year old Elisa Hunter's life after she was knocked down at mile eight and a half on Tuesday.
Today, we met Hunter's family outside the KHMH morgue. From Nicaragua - three sisters came to Belize - and now one is dead, while the others care for her 7 year old daughter Ellie:
Ersi Hunter, Sister of Deceased
"We don't need money. We only want back our sister. From we were young, it was only 3 of us: my oldest sister, myself and her. We came to this country to make progress, to live in a different way."
"But we never expected this to happen. Now she only left us a little girl, and the two of us remaining."
And Ellie - now falls to Ersie's care - it's a promise one sister made to another, in the desperate minutes on the shoulder of the highway:
Ersi Hunter, Sister of Deceased
"At the moment of the accident - I went to her side and told her I would take care of her daughter until the end of my life."
Through tears, the family says that while it was an accident, it wasn't one caused by cell phone distraction:
Ersi Hunter, Sister of Deceased
"We only want to say, it's not how they are saying - it's not how they say she was on her phone. I want to defend her; she's my sister. I know that what happened is serious, I won't blame anyone, God knows what he does."
No casting of blame and no request for assistance - only the hard, cold knowledge that life for this family has forever changed:
Ersi Hunter, Sister of Deceased
"I don't know if he's a minister or who he is, but they have left us with a child."
Hunter migrated to Belize in 2005 and had been working at the Recycling Company for 10 months. A representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stayed in contact with the family and told us today that they will cover the cost of sending Elisa's body back to Nicaragua for burial - as well as her medical expenses.
The Minister's driver, driver Amir Garcia is pending charges according to police.
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