And now we go to Saint Matthews Village for the weekend's other double murder:
"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep..." might have been part of the prayer that 3 year old Aiden Perez and his mom recited before bedtime.
If he recited it last Friday night, Aiden would have begged that protection for the last time.
He and his mother would be dead before 11:00 pm, perished in a fire set by a jealous ex, or maybe they were killed before that and then set on fire.
It's the unspeakable tragedy that's shattered the peace of St. Matthews village; Cherisse Halsall has that story.
Cherisse Halsall
This rubble is all that remains of two lives: 36-year-old Kendra Middleton and her 3-year-old son Aiden. They perished in a fire that police say was set by her ex, the culmination of a tumultuous and violent relationship with a history of reports of domestic violence.
Here's how Kendra's neighbor describes her struggles and the event that ended both her life and the life of her child.
Voice of: Vilma Cruz, Neighbor
"It was a not good relationship she had with the bwoy she was with and that's all I could say. It wasn't a good relationship she was going through. I was ready to go to sleep and I went in my bathroom to brush my teeth and when I heard the bam and the sparklings like fire, I heard the noise so and I saw like the yellow lights from the flames through the window when I opened the window and I saw the house of my neighbor in flames and that was when I got alerted and I called the police and that's when they came and they found out that the bodies of my neighbor and her baby were in there."
"I didn't hear anything, that's the saddest part because we couldn't do anything."
No one, not even Kendra's mother who lives just a stone throw away from her daughter was able to do anything. Her aunt Dana Lewis who lives in Belmopan, got the tragic news in a phone call from her sister.
Dana Lewis, Aunt of the deceased
"She was bawling like screaming and she said Dana, she said come and I said what happened? She said Kendra is dead, Kendra and Aiden are dead, she said they're dead and I'm shocked I just felt shocked I couldn't do anything and I touched my husband and said get up, Kendra died. So I asked her what happened and she said they burnt up in the house, they got burned her up in the house and I, from she said that I said it's that guy."
"Kendra was a very outgoing person very, very, jovial, very friendly, very straightforward she used to say that she is like me very straight, just get to the point. Little Aiden Kendra, really was believing God, you know, she thought she couldn't have a baby and then way in her middle age Aiden came and she was so happy for her little son because she thought that she couldn't have any baby so like that was a blessing from God for her. And even my sister, she was the one taking care of him from when he was small, you know that's their little blessing. We're all torn up, we're all torn up, I can't even explain it, I'm not even hungry. I can't even like eating."
It's Indescribable pain caused by a man who had only been in her life for only a few months:
Dana Lewis, Aunt of the deceased
"It was like it wasn't long, about four months, it was about four months. Four months she is going out with Demas but it's like an probably off an on relationship because when she had just gotten in with him she told me about the relationship, and I said Kendra you need to not mess with him just calm down a little bit and just wait."
Cherisse Halsall:
"To have committed such a passionate act, terrible though it was, you would think the relationship lasted longer?"
Dana Lewis, Aunt of the deceased
"I know, I think she reported one time to the police, yes but she didn't get a restraining order, and she told him that she didn't, you know want him and he said that if he couldn't get her nobody else could get her and he would probably come at the house and harass her. She didn't want him."
It's a rejection that Kendra's killer used as grounds to condemn, not just her but her child as well. The unimaginable end for two blameless victims has devastated the family:
Dana Lewis, Aunt of the deceased
"We are still numb, we are still numb, I cried a little bit but it's a lot of mixed emotions, everybody is so torn apart. The family is so broken with this incident that happened, everybody is just torn up. I mean it hurts so bad. Both kill her and burn her, burn down the house what kind of person is that you know he's demon, he's demonic."
Aiden Perez was a police officer's son.
Middleton's mother is herself no stranger to tragedy. She lost her first husband to an accident while their four children were all underage, and, years later, she was knocked unconscious and left to battle brain damage through an extended coma after her Roaring Creek home was burglarized.
