7 News Belize

Santa Familia Residents Demand Justice For Slain Teen
posted (June 20, 2017)
The Santa Familia community is still coming to terms with the vicious killing of 16 year old Emy Guerra. Her throat was slashed and she was drowned on Friday night while with her boyfriend 22 year old Eliseo Bacab who survived.

Her family and community is not waiting quietly for justice. Today they took to the streets in San Ignacio to make their voices heard on their loved one's murder.

Cathy Guerra, Mother
"I just Justice, I just want they pay for what they do to my daughter."

Courtney Weatherburne reporting
That is exactly what Guerra's family and a crowd of Santa Familia residents were demanding today.

The Santa Familia community is enraged after Emy Guerra's ruthless murder. On Friday night around 9:00 Guerra and her boyfriend Eliseo Bacab met up at this cemetery and then moved to the football field close by to get away from unwanted company - 3 men who Bacab knew very well. But they followed Guerra and Bacab and approached them by the riverside. One of the men grabbed Bacab from behind, stabbed him several times in the neck and threw him in the river. But Bacab survived. Guerra didn't, the men slashed Guerra's throat and drowned her. Her body was found on Saturday afternoon around 2:00.

Sherima Pinelo, Sister
"It is very difficult because she is my little sister she is like everything for me and I can't believe that happen yet for me she is alive yet, because I love her lot, for me she is everything."

And to show their support during this difficult time a group of villagers brought out posters and assembled in front of the San Ignacio Police Station.

Ricardo Roches, Cousin
"It is a very serious cause, the death, the cruel death of a cousin which is my cousin, a youth that is just starting her life and we are here to support her and her family tremendously."

Kimberly Carrias, Friend
"We are out here calling all the mothers out there like I, I am a mother , I have a mother of 2 kids and I have a daughter and I would never want this to happen to my baby so I am feeling the pain this mother is going through."

Shayan Guerra, Santa Familia
"We want them now, we want to see now they because they can't go so because they are criminals and they have to pay."

And everyone wanted to see all 3 men pay today. The crowd was waiting for them to be escorted out for their arraignment.

Kimberly Carrias, Friend
"We would like for them to let them out for us to have them, give us him, give we the criminals, if you are a criminal then come out and face us."

But the men were not at the station. Steven Manzanero, Armando Coleman and Reginald Patt were arraigned in the Belmopan Magistrate's court yesterday. They were then remanded to prison until August 21st.

Cathy Guerra, Mother
"I wanted to see their faces and see how they look and see how they look if they are frightened or if they are happy or if they...you know for what they did."

But this grieving mother didn't get that satisfaction. For now the family and residents must settle with the fact that all 3 men are in prison but Guerra says she will continue to fight for her daughter.

Cathy Guerra, Mother
"We will be back on the 21st of August because this will not stay like this, we will still be here."

So the crowd slowing dispersed around 11:00 - hoping that as this court case drags on that these men who have destroyed the peace in Santa Familia will not go free.

Sherima Pinelo, Sister
"If they come out again they will do the same thing and that can't happen again, they need to be in jail forever so I just want them to be in jail and not to come out ever again."

When we spoke to the family late this evening they said they hadn't gotten the post mortem results yet. There are reports that Guerra was raped but police say they have no evidence suggesting that. But the family says they will wait for the post mortem results. Manzanero, Coleman and Patt have been remanded to prison until August 21st. We will keep following this case.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize