Police say they are very close to wrapping up Jasmine Petillo's murder case. She's the 17 year old who was stabbed 57 times and then thrown in a ditch in Mahogany Heights. Police have confirmed that Petillo's murder is linked to the June 2015 slaying of Desmond Usher better known as "Mumuch". The reports are that it was Petillo who had lured Usher to his death by phone and a year later, Petillo was the victim of a revenge killing. Well, police have made major progress in this case by finding the house in which Petillo was killed as well as one of the suspect's bloodied suit of clothing. Today police gave us more details and also addressed the element of gang retaliation.
ACP Edward Broaster - OC, Eastern Division Rural
"We have been doing significant investigation into that matter. We have identified the house in which we believe the young lady was killed. We have also managed to extract blood samples from the house which will be sent to the lab for DNA testing and that will give us the way forward in terms of charges and what have you in respect to that murder case. We have also found bloody clothing in another location which was discarded by another suspect and we are looking for an additional suspect where we will be doing DNA swab as well and sent to the lab for testing."
"What we planned to do is have our Rural Rapid Response team out of Ladyville patrol the Mahogany Heights area, the Hattieville area and the Ladyville area. We believe that there are many gang figures who are coming into the rural area, because of the heat in Belize City, believing that they come into an area where they can seek refuge and they are being targeted by their rival in our area and hence the reason that we will be stepping up our operations in these areas by our Rural Rapid Response team."
Now in terms of the case, the information is that Petillo was sleeping alone at a friend's house that Tuesday night and that is when her attackers went into the house, stabbed her 57 times, wrapped her body in a white quilt, and dragged her about 400 yards away into the ditch. Petillo was fully clothed but because her body was dragged her clothes were rumpled and torn. The police have taken blood samples from the murder scene and from the suspect's blooded clothes for testing. They have also detained one person and are looking for 4 others.
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