She worked as a nurse at the Northern Regional Hospital in Orange Walk, but like many Belizean women she was victim to domestic violence. Now it is that very violence that took her life. 27-year-old Anna Maria Magdalena Basto was killed in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Police received a call from Basto's common law husband 27-year-old Daniel Elvis Ku telling them he had killed his wife. When police visited the scene at number 2 Otro Benque Road where they found Basto, she had been brutally killed. 7NEWS was in Orange Walk today to find out the need for the silence on domestic violence to be broken.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
On Saturday morning the body of 37-year-old Anna Maria Magdalena Basto was taken out of her home by police personnel. She had been killed. Her husband 27-year-old Daniel Elvis Ku called police sometime around 7 that morning - telling them that he had killed her. Basto's death was particularly brutal. She was stabbed 32 times with a screwdriver and her throat had been slashed with a surgical blade.
Inspector Leslie Logan, Orange Walk Police
"On entering the house we found the body of Anna Marie Basto, the nurse, lying on the floor in the living room of the house with cut wounds to the neck and several other bodily injuries."
Police have since charged Ku with murder. But even as they have identified the man believed to be the killer - her co-workers at the Northern Regional Hospital are making preparations for her funeral and they are going about it in utter disbelief.
Claudette Grinage, Co-worker
"I can say that it is a terrible loss to us. The Northern Regional Hospital will certainly not be the same anymore without Nurse Basto. She was a very dedicated individual. She liked her work, she enjoyed being a nurse, that's what she did, that's what she was about: caring for people. So to think that she died in this manner is certainly a shock to all of us and the entire staff at the hospital is hurting for that.
Nurse Basto was a very pleasant individual. She would come to work each day always smiling with the patients, staff and everybody. Nobody would have known that when she comes to work in the morning what she has been through the night before and throughout whatever it was she was going through at home, she always dedicated herself to caring for the patients and to think that she died in that manner, so close to the hospital and he never brought her over to save her. That hurts even more."
Nurse Tillet,
"Here at the hospital it feels so somber, like the people don't know what to do, what to say, they are just, their faces says it all. We are going to miss her deeply and I don't know when this will heal, the healing process will take long for all of us. They are still in shock, some are still in denial but let's hope we can stick together and let's have a good outcome after this."
They are displaying that hurt with a shrine that they have erected in memory of Basto. It includes domestic abuse messages that she never heeded. But while Basto never broke the silence or ended the abuse herself. Nurse Tillet - who worked closely with nurse Basto - says she believes they did all they could.
Nurse Tillet, Co-worker
"All the nursing staff here knew what she was going through and all of us advised her, to give one two three, but it was up to her to make her last decision. We can advise but she is going out and she makes the last decision. It is not Nurse Basto, to tell you the truth - a lot of nurses here are going through the same violence and this has to stop. We are going to see Nurse Basto as the martyr here because I guess something real bad had to happen for all of us to open our eyes."
Martha Cho, Co-Worker
"She probably spoke with other colleagues but maybe not willingly and we weren't able to really see what she was going through and it hurts; it hurts a lot."
Claudette Grinage,
"At this hospital we will certainly set up the support, a supper group, a support system for our staff who find themselves in this situation. The Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Health has committed to that as well and beginning today we will certainly work towards that because there are other staff members who are in similar situations."
Martha Cho,
"I hope that this loss for us is not in vain because I do believe that we have other colleagues that might be going through this same problem and I hope it will help for them to speak more openly. All the support that you give will not make much of a difference if they are not willing to admit or willing to make a decision to change what is wrong."
Claudette Grinage,
"We don't need for anybody else to go the way Nurse Basto went."
And so today as the flag in the hospital was flown at half -mast - there was a black bow hung at the main entrance gate and candles flittered at the shrine erected in her honor -the question remains: Why.
Ku has been charged with murder.
