In early November, Belizean police turned to the Justice Department of Quintana Roo in Mexico to ask for assistance in solving three cases. They didn't want the Mexicans to solve the crimes, they only needed the Justice Department's forensic Unit to perform tests that the Forensic Department in Belize lacks the expertise or equipment to do.
The first case is the March 2005 death of Eder Alamilla; police maintain that Alamilla committed suicide while his family has insisted throughout that it was a homicide. The second was the case of Juan Dorado. On October 9 of 2005, the Cayo resident allegedly killed his common law wife and then killed himself. Since then, evidence has been produced which suggests that it was a double homicide and the Mexicans were also asked to look into the murders of Charles Castillo and Eugene "Witch" White, who were both killed on October 18, of 2005.
Police wanted the Mexicans to tell them if both were killed with the same weapon. Today, the Mexican authorities presented their findings on those three cases to the Belize Police Forensic Department and the woman in charge of that department, Genoveva Marin discussed the broad outline of the findings.
Genoveva Marin, Belize Forensic Police Dept.
"What we have for Juan Dorado was that it was being ruled as suicide in the first instance. With what we have, as the reconstruction of all the evidence that we forwarded, it was now being treated as homicide rather than suicide. Eder Alamilla, it was also being treated as suicide from the first instance and there was a lot of allegations and questions that arose from the investigations and it was and is, I guess, closed as a case and ruled as a suicide with further conclusive evidence. And Brian Herrera is suspect of two killings, two shootings in Belize City. Again in this case, what we wanted to do is to confirm that one firearm was used in both instances, rather than just speculating that yes it was one person doing one killing. This has been confirmed by our counterparts in Mexico, Chetumal."
The Mexicans will also perform DNA tests on the mask that Brain Herrera allegedly used to commit the October 18 double murders. In the event that any of their evidence is used in court, the Mexicans themselves would have to come and present it. As a part of this new partnership, a staffer from Belize's Forensic Department will be attached to the Mexican office for three months.
