The second murder of the Christmas weekend was in Orange Walk. The body of a 57-year-old man was found on Saturday morning near the cemetery with cut wounds to the throat. Initial reports were that Steven Patten was heading home when he was picked up by someone with some form of vehicle and taken to the crime scene where he was killed. However, communications officer, Fitzroy Yearwood, said that the police are still working out the details since the incident occurred during curfew and there would be little to no eyewitnesses.
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood Communications Director, Belize Police Department
"We received information of a man been stabbed in Orange Walk on St. Martin Street near the cemetery. When investigators arrived on the scene, they found the body of Mr. Steve Gilbert Patten, fifty-seven-years-old, with multiple stab wounds. Investigators found out that he was at some relatives house a little earlier in the morning and left there sometime around 2:30. No one heard from him until his body was discovered sometime around eight o'clock on Christmas morning. Our investigators found what they believe is the murder weapon not too far from the scene with bloodstains on it, a knife to be exact."
"His whereabouts, for us to track, between 2:30 to 8:00 which is during curfew hours would be very difficult because in that area it's almost no one on the street, unless his assailant was lay-waiting him or was somewhere nearby waiting for him to pass. Apparently this is the route that he was taking from where he was hanging out to his home and he was stopped somewhere in between that area. According to what investigators relayed to me. We have interviewed several relatives and friends and the investigators believe that it could lead to something to an arrest, so it would just be a matter of time for them to update us."
