In the past two months, acts of violence against young women and girls have dominated the headlines. You've heard them all, stories of rape, assault, and a pair of murders in the north. Well, tonight it doesn't get any better as a 20-year-old was savagely raped and murdered in the Cayo district.
7NEWS today traveled to a small community some 5 miles west of Teakettle to found out what happened to 20 year old Rubita Oroman.
Alfonso Noble Reporting, [from Roaring River Village]
At 1:50 this afternoon the body of 20-year-old Rubita Oroman was brought in to the Belmopan Hospital morgue where a doctor pronounced her dead. Rubita's father 62 year old Benigno Oroman says that his daughter left home yesterday morning to wash clothes at a nearby creek but she went missing shortly after.
Benigno Oroman, Victim's Father
[Translation from Spanish] "She went to wash early in the morning and at around 9am she went missing from the river. Her sisters saw that she did not come back and went looking for her at around midday. The clothes were there, that bucket of clothes that's there she did not wash."
"They went to look for her and found the two buckets of clothes. Some jean pants were in the water and a broken hair clip was also there."
Those were the only clues Oroman had to go by when he went looking for her yesterday afternoon after he came home from work. He couldn't find her during the night, and it wasn't until early this morning that he made the gruesome discovery:
Benigno Oroman,
[Translation from Spanish] "This morning I went looking for my daughter and found her at around 5. She was naked. Her arms and legs were spread out. She had on no clothes, her clothes were beside her."
Sinquest Martinez, Investigating Officer
"Right now we are investigating a case of a murder along with apparently rape. I would say apparently rape at this present moment because we need go through the swab and after if we go through that we will know if the woman had been sexually assaulted. She was lying face up and her body was nude and as soon as we get through the tests from her body then we will know if she was actually raped. On her face we saw some bruises, we saw some bruises."
Rubita had been taken from where she was washing clothes and dragged to some nearby bushes were she was raped either before or after she was killed. Now as police conduct their investigation they will be looking at a man who was seen in the area at the time of Rubita's disappearance.
Benigno Oroman,
[Translation from Spanish] "A young man who was in the area saw a man. His pants were wet and he was squeezing his shirt. He could be the one because no one else was in the area."
But even as this father speculates as to who the murderer is he laments the death of his youngest daughter where he had to be the one making the discovery.
Benigno Oroman,
[Translation from Spanish] "I cried. It's lamentable to find a daughter in that state. For any father to find his daughter like that it's difficult to bear. It's hard raising children and to find one in that state it's difficult, it's difficult."
A heartbreaking situation for this father, who can now only hope that it is not as difficult for the police to find the killer.
Police have no one detained and investigators are asking anyone with information on this murder to call 922.