Police are tonight awaiting the results of a post mortem and other forensic tests to determine if 22-year-old Eder Alamilla killed himself or if he was murdered. Early on Saturday morning, the St. John's College Sixth Form student was found dead on Newton Barracks in his crashed Toyota Corolla with a gunshot wound to his head. All the windows and doors were locked so over the weekend police initially reported it as an apparent suicide. But the family believes it is more like a homicide.
It is a story with a twist because Eder appeared on 7NEWS in January with a disfigured face. At the time, he claimed he had been beaten by Princess security. Two months later he is dead. So was it suicide or homicide? Keith Swift tried to find out.
Keith Swift Reporting,
22-year-old Eder Alamilla spoke to 7NEWS back on January 7th when he claims he was allegedly roughed up by Princess Hotel security on New Year's Eve. But early Saturday morning Eder was found here in front of St. Anthony's Trading Center sitting in his crashed car just yards away from 2 major nightclubs. He was slumped over his steering wheel with a gunshot to his head and a gun lying next to him. Police say he committed suicide. His family says Eder was murdered.
Giovanni Alamilla, Eder's Brother
"It doesn't make sense to me that, if he wants to kill himself why wouldn't he come home, he lives by himself, and do that instead of while he is driving, shoot himself in the back of the head and then crash. It was in the back of his head. I looked at his head and he had a wound about 2 inches behind his right ear."
Tanya Alamilla-Mahler, Eder's Sister
"Police had said that Eder committed suicide and I do not believe that. No way Eder would ever do that, he has too much to lose. He is not someone that would do that to the family so whosoever did it please come forward and take responsibility for what you did. You took my brother's life. Please come forward and admit it."
Giovanni Alamilla,
"That's just not in his character. He is somebody that is outgoing. Everybody that knows him, they are just calling me and telling me that there's no way, it is just impossible that he would have done that to himself."
But police say the evidence so far overwhelmingly points to a suicide. This
is the blue 1989 Toyota Corolla he was driving Friday night. The front is dented from the crash when he was found behind the wheel. Then there is his blood on the seat. The windows aren't shattered so the bullet did come from inside. G. Michael Reid is the Police's Press Officer.
G. Michael Reid, Police Press Officer
"At this point there is nothing presenting itself to the fact that there might be anything other than this (suicide), though the case remains open. It is under investigation and we are looking at all angles and any evidence that comes forth will certainly be considered."
Keith Swift,
Why do you believe it was a suicide?
G. Michael Reid,
"From the evidence that's there. The fact that he was in the vehicle by himself and that the firearm was there. All the forensic tests of course have been taken and we await the results of that. The post mortem is sometime this afternoon also the hand of the individual must be checked to see if it was indeed him who fired the firearm. Also there are a number of other corroborating evidence that comes from people who was with the individual before the incident which all points to the fact that yes indeed for all intents and purposes it possibly is a suicide."
Giovanni Alamilla has spent the last two days tracing his brother's last steps. He says Eder spent Friday night at a private party. He had a minor argument with his girlfriend but by 2:45 am they were back on good terms and he dropped her home. He was last seen buying food around 3 am in front of the Eden Nightclub. That is just yards from where he ultimately crashed after the single and fatal gunshot. A bullet, which his couldn't have come from his gun because the family says he didn't have one.
Tanya Alamilla-Mahler,
"My brother does not own a gun. I don't what anybody says, he is so scared of guns."
Keith Swift,
So the gun they found in the car next to him wasn't his?
Tanya Alamilla-Mahler,
"No its not. We do not believe it's his gun."
Giovanni Alamilla,
"He could have gotten (the gun) but if he did he would told me about it. We were that close that he would told me about it."
Giovanni was with Eder in the New Year's Eve scuffle at the Princess. He doesn't believe his brother would kill himself over the very public scars left from that incident.
Giovanni Alamilla,
"He's never said it to me that he's depressed or anything but once in awhile he would talk about the numbness in his face, he has no feeling in his because of what happened. The doctors did tell him that if they went in and did surgery, because of the complete shatter of his cheekbone, that they would do more damage than good. But they did tell him that maybe after a couple years that the eye, because of the damage to the nerve, the eye would sink in a little bit but they could try to cover it by doing plastic surgery, you know put in like a false cheek just to even out his face. But its not something, like I said, that he really dwelled on."
In fact after he returned to Belize in late
January, his family says the 22 year old returned to finish SJC Sixth Form and to a normal life. But there was an exception, the family claims that Eder constantly felt like he was being followed and that his life was in danger.
Tanya Alamilla-Mahler,
"He said that they were just calling him, following him, and bothering him. I don't know exactly who was calling him but he just felt threatened; he felt scared."
And that is why this family refuses to accept any determination until they know all the facts.
Giovanni Alamilla,
"We just need to exactly what happened. We need to know if its suicide, okay prove it. Tell us why he would shoot himself in the back of the head when I guess 99% of the suicides in the world, if they are going to shoot themselves, they are going to shoot themselves in the temple or in the mouth, they are not going to shoot themselves in the back of the head. And if it's a murder, we need to know what happened. We need to have some justice."
Justice, which will perhaps be the easiest answer for this family left with so many questions.
That post mortem was conducted this afternoon. While it did not establish conclusively whether it was suicide or homicide, it did show that the entry wound was to the side of the head, in the temple area. Funeral arrangements are planned for Wednesday. Eder Alamilla was scheduled to graduate from the Saint John's College in May. With regards to his problem with the Princess, the family's attorney hadn't filed a civil complaint yet for damages yet but they still plan on pursuing it. An interesting aside is that Eder was dating the daughter of the Princess' General Manager.
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