Last night in Belize City, a man killed his wifeand then committed suicide. But it was no isolate act of deranged jealousy; the couple shared three children. Fortunately those kids were not at home yesterday and most unfortunately, that is what set the stage for an afternoon and evening of despair, derangement and death. Jacqueline Godwin has more.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
The lifeless body of thirty two year old Delbert Dinsdale Arthurs was found inside the small wooden house hanging from this wooden beam with an electrical cable tied around his neck. Next door in the bedroom the lifeless body of twenty three year old Fania Susan Noel was found on this bloody bed.
The mother of three very young children had a large cut wound to the right side of the neck and two other chop wounds to her upper left arm. Fania was apparently murdered by Dinsdale who she had been living with for the past four years. after he killed her, the common law husband took his own life. There was blood every where inside the small wooden house that
started in the living room and ended in the bedroom.
From all indications it is believed Fania was killed sometime on Monday morning or in the early afternoon. The bloody mess left in the living room suggests it was there that the first attack occurred and Fania ran to the bedroom where it is believed she was finally killed.
Ichelle Jeffords, Close friend of murdered victim
"She told me that she was going to rent her house and she was moving back to her moms and I asked her why. She said that she is tired of the relationship and lately, we were very very close, but when she started her family with this young man, we got separated a little while but lately she is been calling me a lot to come to her house. I asked her what was the problem and she told me that she was tired and she wanted him to move out but he didn't want to. So she was going to move out of her house. She said that he keeps accusing her and she was tired of it."
Jacqueline Godwin,
Accusing her of what?
Ichelle Jeffords,
"Of having affairs but honestly from the time she was 16, she has always been an independent person. By the age of sixteen she had her own house, the house was hers, a two bedroom house. She had her kids, she worked, she worked very very hard.
There were no indications whatsoever that he had threatened her and honestly if she had told me that he had threatened her, I probably wouldn't have taken it seriously because he was a very very quiet person. So it is really hard."
Jacqueline Godwin,
So when you heard what had happened, this came as a shock to you?
Ichelle Jeffords,
"Last night, I was actually on my way, because I had to go and get some DVDs from her, but before I reached I got the message and it was really a shock. I walked all the way here last night because up to now it is still hard for me to believe it."
Fredrick Olivera, Cousin of murder victim
"She and he had a big misunderstanding Saturday and I don't know what happened Sunday because I was at work but yesterday morning I saw
my cousin Fania and yesterday afternoon I saw a little girl take the baby to my cousin's granny, who is not the baby's granny, and I went back there to the house and I saw the two bikes in front of the house and I asked him where was Fania. He told me he was busy and I couldn't come into the house. So I went and I said to myself they are doing something big day and I left and went to a shop. When I went to a next Chiney shop, I met Arthurs at the shop drinking a stout. So he offered me a stout but I told him I don't drink stout in the sun so I went home. I saw him walk straight up the street like he was going home until last night I heard this thing happen and it really shocked me because I could swear dah jealous this man jealous.
This is the feeling I have, when I went to the house I feel my cousin was already dead and that is why he didn't let me into the house because it is not somewhere where I can go and just knock. I can just open and step in like I live there because it is my cousin and he had the door locked and he peeped at me through a window and talked to me, right through the window. I feel that the man killed my cousin and the man went to the shop to drink and try to offer me drink and went back home and killed himself. That is what I feel. But I think this is a bad thing because a little baby they left and two little girls are punishing now."
Steve Olivera, Cousin of murder victim
"He is a jealous person, he fell in love with my cousin and he said he liked her more than how a pig likes mud."
Jacqueline Godwin,
And he was very possessive?
Steve Olivera,
"Yeah and then anytime he starts drinks then he comes at my house and start like bring his complaints to my mother and talk out, especially when he is drinking liquor. So probably the death or what happened is by jealousy. But we never expect it to come to this."
Jacqueline Godwin,
And is it through there were children at the time inside the home?
Steve Olivera,
"No the only one who was present at the time was the little baby but what the guy do is put the baby outside and called a neighbour, put the little one outside and he called upon a neighbour and told the neighbour to come and take her. So probably the death of the little one happened right in front of his mother. He watched his mother die."
When police searched the house they found a four inch blade with a wooden handle that they believe is the knife Delbert Dinsdale Arthurs used to kill Fania Susan Noel. Reporting for 7News Jacqueline Godwin.
Although close friends, relatives and family members dispute it, people in the area told 7News that just last week Delbert was heard saying that he would kill Fania and the children. But no one took the threats seriously.....that is until the bodies were discovered by a neighbour around five on Monday evening. Up until the time of the murder and suicide Fania Susan Noel and Delbert Dinsdale Arthurs both worked as sanitation workers with Belize Maintenance Limited.
