Tonight, a woman is in police custody after her common-law husband's body was found in his bedroom with 56 stab wounds. Around 7 this morning, Stephany Alvarez reported to police that she found 45-year-old Omar Kantun dead inside their home in Silk Grass Village.
But police are now investigating the angle that this could have been a crime of passion committed by her hand. Courtney Menzies was on the scene this morning and spoke to a neighbor and close friend of the victim. Here is that story.
Courtney Menzies: The villagers of peaceful Silk Grass on the Southern Highway received a shock this morning when reports of a murder in the village surfaced around 7am.
It's the result of a domestic dispute between a couple who moved here only 5 months ago. But in this case, it's the husband, 54-year-old Omar Kantun who seemed to have died at the hands of his common law wife - the culmination of what neighbors say was a long history of abuse.
It was just before 7 when the suspect went across the street to the neighbor's house and asked for her assistance. That neighbor said when she heard that her friend was dead, she raced over to his house in her pajamas.
Voice of: Neighbor
"When I walk up the step, I push the door but before I push the door, I see the next room, when I push the door, I look in the next room, I see the sheet bloody, when I walk in the room, I see my friend, my neighbor on the bed, stab up. At that time the blood done dry up, like the man dead from earlier in the morning."
"The man is on the bed, he has a lot of stab wounds, I mean like crazy stab all over his back, his guts is coming through his back and all, the whole mattress bloody."
The neighbor said that she instantly suspected Kantun's common law as the killer.
Voice of: Neighbor
"I look at she, before I left I see water dripping out of her hair, if you are going to bathroom, it's to the way to the bathroom this man body is. So you bathe before you call anybody that this man dead on this bed?"
"I come outside and I looked at her and I said, nobody kill this man, come on, you know you had to have done this. Silk Grass is a peaceful village, nobody at Silk Grass do those things, we recreate."
"Now she wake me out of my bed to come see my neighbor dead like this, like a dog!"
And she had good reason to be suspicious since she said their relationship has always been a tumultuous one and she claims that there was a history of abuse.
Courtney Menzies:
"You've heard them argue before?"
Voice of: Neighbor
"More than one time, that's why I keep away and this is crime of passion. This man can't talk to nobody, this man can't be friendly with nobody, she is the boss all the time."
And now, she just wants justice for her friend, whom she has known since 2019 when they both lived in Cayo. A man who she described as a lover of nature and tranquility.
Voice of: Neighbor
"He work at Forestry, he deal with the forest. He is a calm soul. May his soul rest in peace because, man, I need justice. He likes the forest, he likes being in the jungle, he is a person like that. He deal with agriculture work, pruning trees, things like that this man love."
According to police, Kantun sustained 56 stab wounds. 44 of those were in his back, and the rest were in his shoulders, hands, legs, face, head and neck.
Up until this morning, the police had still not found the murder weapon. Kantun had several children, but none living with him in Silk Grass.
