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Two Sisters Savagely Chopped Up and Killed In Toledo West
posted (January 22, 2018)
There was a grisly double murder in western Toledo last night. It is a crime so savage that it has left that remote rural community in a state of shock and incomprehension. Two sisters, aged 18 and 20, were found chopped to death and partially nude on a deserted road at minutes to midnight on Sunday. Daniel Ortiz has the full story. He produced this story in collaboration with PG TV:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
The Toledo family of the sisters, 20 year-old Cresencia Oh and 18 year-old Josephine Oh, were in the depths in grief when our colleagues from PGTV spoke with them today.

And, it's easy to understand why. Their loved ones left home on a quick trip to San Jose Village, a few miles away. They were expected to return, but, instead, their mutilated bodies were found on the road last night. Someone had savagely chopped them to death.

Mario Oh - Brother of the Deceased
"I saw them yesterday."

Reporter
"Do you know what they were probably doing in San Jose?"

Mario Oh
"They went for a church [service]."

Reporter
"They went for church?"

Mario Oh
"With the Mennonite."

Reporter
"Some people say they saw them walking out of the village, do you know why they did not come back with the Mennonite?"

Mario Oh
"Well, as they reached the Mennonite, and the church finished, they went - I got a brother living right there in San Jose. Now, when the church finished, they went and attended to my brother because they wanted to send something with them. And according to my sister - my other sister - she stayed in the church. She didn't go with them, but according to them, they were waiting, but they didn't arrive."

Delila Oh - Sister of the Deceased
"My father gone went all the way to Santa Cruz to meet them. When my next sisters came home, they asked my dad if they had already arrived. But, my dad told them that they hadn't reached home yet."

Some 6 or so hours later, the cops discovered their bodies.

ASP Alejandro Cowo - OC, CIB Belize City
"Last night, sometime after 10:30 - minutes to 11, Punta Gorda Police visited San Jose Village in the Toledo District, where on the roadside, they observed the nude bodies of 2 females - 1 is a minor - with several apparent chop wounds to the body. What we have so far is that the females are from San Antonio Village, and they had gone to San Jose Village to attend a church service. They went - after the church service, they had visited their brother, and whilst going back to their village, it was then that they were brutally attacked, and they bodies were found later on by police. Police is at the village trying to establish a motive, and also, what other information we can get from any person that was around in that area."

The case currently has its own difficulties. For one, the villages are remote, and quite a long distance from PG Town. So, transportation and communication are challenges that the officers in the field have been managing since this double tragedy was discovered.

ASP Alejandro Cowo
"We have no other further information. It is a remote village, and the communication with the officers there and communication with the officers in the town is kinda difficult. So, that is why we're having a little problem. We're just basing one what we have initially gotten from them early this morning. But, we have not gotten an update because of the distance."

Reporter
"So a motive has not been established."

ASP Alejandro Cowo
"A motive has not been established yet. I cannot tell you if any parts of the body was dismembered, but it is very very huge chop wounds that both victims had."

And, that distance and disconnect also affected the family. They didn't find out about Cresencia and Josephine's murders until the next day.

Their father, learning that his two daughters did not come home with the Mennonite truck which took them to San Jose, went looking for them in Santa Cruz. The plan was for them to come home through that village, and a shortcut in the area.

Teodoro Oh - Father of the Deceased
"They told their other sister that they won't be coming this way. They would be heading through Santa Cruz shortcut. So, when my other daughter came from Church service that evening, it was 6:30. And, I asked her where is the other sister, and they told me that they would be coming through Santa Cruz. So, I told them okay, no problem. So, I went there there and looked for them."

Though the young women were strangers in San Jose, some of the villagers were probably the last to see them alive.

Pablo Bol - Resident, San Jose Village
"Around like 6:30, in the evening yesterday, I saw those 2 females heading towards San Antonio, or somewhere, but heading toward that area. But, they are not living here. I do not know who they are, but I saw those 2 females."

Reporter
"Were they Maya females?"

Pablo Bol
"Well, [they] could be Maya, could be quechi, but they looked like Maya, yeah."

Reporter
"And they walked through the village."

Pablo Bol
"They went through the village, but they were heading back to San Antonio at that time, 6-6:30 in the evening, yesterday."

Their father thinks that it was while they were on the way that they were attacked and savagely chopped.

Reporter
"Do you have any idea what might have gone wrong?"

Teodoro Oh
"Well... to my view, when I went and checked the site this morning. They were walking home when they were attacked."

To ensure that no more pain was piled on top this family, the police department had some words of warning to those posting lurid photographs of the scene:

Supt. Bart Jones - Legal Advisor, Police Department
"Before we post picture, whether [it's] members of the media, or [it's] members of the public, we want to send out that warning that, consider the families who are certainly being affected by these photographs."

The distance between San Jose Village, where the young women were killed, and their home in San Antonio, is about 10 miles of bad road. That 10-mile difference between the two villages is covered mostly by bush, making it a remote location, and an unlikely area for anyone to have witnessed what happened.

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