He was parking by the seaside in the Marine Parade area, reportedly with a female friend, to enjoy the cool of the Christmas night weather at evening time. But instead of taking it all in, Hugo Sylva was brutally beaten and viciously stabbed in the head by unknown attackers. The 45 year was beaten so badly that he ended up at the hospital where he was receiving attention up until midnight last night when he died. Now as police investigate what has been upgraded to a case of murder, investigators have few leads because they had hoped Sylva would recover and be able to tell them what happened. But now, he's died suddenly and police have to begin to find answers in a very difficult case.
Alfonso NobleReporting,
On the 26th of December 45-year-old mechanic, Hugo Sylva was found here on the blood stained riprap outside the seawall on Marine Parade. He had been mercilessly beaten and police had to take him to the KHMH for treatment. His vehicle this Toyota Corolla was found at least three miles away on the far end of Dungeon drive. While at the time police were treating it like aggravated assault, at around midnight last night it turned into murder when Sylva died from heart failure. His niece Maria Pech recounted to us what transpired since he was last seen on Christmas Day.
Maria Pech, Victim's Niece
"He came here about noon and then he said that he was leaving. I told him that since he was drinking its best for you to stay home but he said he wanted to go and he went."
That was Christmas day and it wouldn't be until around 3 on the following morning that the family heard anything else.
Maria Pech,
"We were at a friend's house and we didn't see him. The following day the police went by my aunt's house at 3 in the morning and they told her that they found his car abandoned by Sun Spree Resort area."
Alfonso Noble,
Where was he?
Maria Pech,
"He wasn't near or around the vehicle. They didn't find him in the vehicle. The police told us that they didn't find him with the vehicle and then we began a search and then we went to the hospital and there we found him. His face was all swollen and his eyes were closed because it was swollen. He was a small person but he looked real big because his body was swollen and he had a lot of bruises in his head. So it looked like they beat him up and they didn't him with their hands, they used something - a board or stone or something to beat him up."
The cause of the attack is not known by either family members or the police. However, word is that he may have been in the company of a woman who he may have accompanied to Marine Parade. What happened next is now a mystery kept only by the killers, and possibly his female companion.
A post mortem on the body of Sylva is scheduled for Wednesday while the family and the police appeal to the public to call in with any information at the 922 crime stoppers or the 911 police hotline.
