Last night, we told you about that scary home invasion that happened on Belize City's Northside.
The victims are two medical professionals, Dr. Maria Lavel Reyes, and Nurse Melinda Guerra, who is the former Director of the Central Health Region. Both women were bound with duct tape, while their home was burglarized by 4 masked men who were armed with firearms.
As we told you, it happened yesterday at around 3:30 a.m. while the couple was asleep. The culprits reportedly gained entry into the house by prying open a burglar bar. After terrorizing the women and ransacking their home for several hours, the thieves escaped with a small box, which contained about a little over 13 thousand US dollars, and an assortment of jewelry.
But, the cops believe at this time, that these victims were targeted mainly due to Dr. Reyes' late model Toyota Hilux. They escaped with the stolen items and the pick-up truck.
Today, Police Commissioner Chester Williams disclosed that while they have made significant progress solving this crime, the stolen vehicle was quickly driven across the border to Guatemala to be sold. Here's that conversation:
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
"Yesterday morning a doctor and a nurse who resides in the Button Bay area of Belize City reported to police that sometime around 1am while they were in their home sleeping, they were awaken by 4 male persons inside their home, 2 of whom were brandishing firearms and they proceeded to conduct searches of the home asking them about money. The thieves eventually stole an amount of cash and a Toyota Hilux. They (thieves) remained at the residence until around 5am yesterday morning, so they were inside the house for practically 3-4 hours searching and we were able to get the complaint sometime about after 6, minutes to 7. So there was a window of almost 2 hours before the complaint came to us. Nonetheless we quickly mobilize dealing with the complaint and yesterday afternoon, a suspect was detained and his home was searched and police found some items that were stolen from that home invasion. Police also found twenty, nine millimeter rounds of ammunition and clothing that resembles that which the complainant said the robber or one of the robbers was wearing when they committed the crime."
"Last night, we detained three other suspects and again, at the home of one of those suspects, clothing that resemble what one of the other robbers was wearing was also found. So the investigators are going through the evidence to see how we can put it together and hopefully between today and tomorrow we will be bringing charges against those persons who are responsible."
"One of the burglars took us to a location where he said that they had hidden the Hilux before it would have gone over to Guatemala for sale. But when we got to the location, only the tracks were seen and apparently the vehicle had already been taken over to Guatemala and so we are liaising with our Guatemalan counterparts to see what can be done from that side to locate and return the vehicle to Belize."
We'll have the news as soon as the cops make arrests in this case.
