October began with a bloody weekend that saw three murders, and three families grasping for answers.
We begin tonight with the tragic and callous killing of an elderly woman in the west.
71-year-old Porfiria Ramona Morales was a street side vendor who sold coconut crusts and pepitos in Benque Viejo Town. And being a senior citizen didn't stop her from doing her daily chores. On Saturday, she went to her house to feed the chickens and ducks, and then she was to return to her son's home to cook. But when 11:00 am arrived and Morales hadn't gotten back, her son became worried.
That was when he heard the screams of his mother as she was being brutally chopped by a man who the neighborhood considers a machete wielding menace.
According to them, it isn't his first violent episode, just that this time, someone's life was snatched away.
Courtney Menzies went west today to speak with the son who watched as his mother passed away. Here is that story.
These candles were placed here by a community in mourning, following a vigil that took place last night in Benque Viejo Del Carmen.
It was in that yard that 71-year-old Porfiria Ramona Morales took her last breath. The elderly mother of one was viciously chopped twice to the neck and shoulder from behind while walking to her son's home, where she normally spends her days, less than five minutes from her own house.
The blood splatters on this house marks the spots where she tried to keep herself upright before collapsing, and her son explained that when he saw someone leaning against the wall, he didn't know it was his own mother fighting for her life.
Ariel Morales, Son of Deceased
"I was sitting on the sofa there and I said let me see if she's coming. So I got up from the sofa towards the window and I can see straight to the highway but it's kind of limited because there is a family from here, they park a vehicle inside this property."
"When I was about to reach in front of the window, I heard a scream and so I looked immediately out the window, I saw a lady, she was leaning against that building there and she was looking somewhat down and I heard other successive, like two more successive screams quickly, in split seconds. I couldn't recognize it was my mother right probably because the blood and her head was like this. I thought dogs were attacking her so I spontaneously just ran out of the house to go and help that lady. When I was just at the middle of the street here, I saw that it was my mother that had a slash right here and she was bleeding profusely. So I immediately just turn back to go and get a towel."
"When I went for the towel, I head back running and when I reached my mother, she had already collapsed just before the entrance. And I just applied the towel to try and stop the bleeding but it was already too late."
And the alleged perpetrator is no stranger to the family nor to the neighborhood - in fact, Morales told us that he has been terrorizing them for years.
Ariel Morales, Son of Deceased
"A neighbor from the corner came with her telephone that she was calling the police and she told me that it was the guy from there, she saw him running, even the mechanic saw him, and he run, he just waited to see that my mom was already going to die and he ran across the creek, across the highway and up that mountain there."
"From years this guy had been doing some things out of the way. For example when I was a child, I was sleeping here and he broke the windows, the windows used to be like the ones on the upstairs there that are square and the glass was on top of me."
"Sometimes he used to go right at the corner and urinate, he had a bad habit. One time he chopped a guy from the other corner and they had to rush him to the hospital in Melchor De Mencos and they saved his life."
"And then after that he chopped the brother of this mechanic right here on his back."
"In 2019 actually, he attempted to cut the head of my mother. She was coming with my neighbor here, Eddie, the taxi driver. We are relatives too. They were conversing, coming from the shop, it's a little ahead from where he murdered my mother, and Eddie noticed that he came to the side of the fence and he just swung the machete at my mother. [Eddie] yelled at my mother, cuidado Moncha because that was her nickname. My mom had to duck down and Eddie had to lean his head to the side, if not he would have been caught."
And though those in the neighborhood feared for their lives, they alleged that their reports to the police were ignored, and their machete wielding neighbor went unpunished.
Courtney Menzies:
"Do you feel like maybe if the police or somebody had intervened seeing as how dangerous Miguel Angel is, your mom might still be here today?"
Ariel Morales, Son of Deceased
"Yeah."
And Morales explained that he tried to get his mother to move into the family house with him, but she chose to live in the home that once belonged to her parents.
Ariel Morales, Son of Deceased
"I used to tell her, mom why don't you come here, or probably her other property up there that is between my aunt and one of my uncles who's here right now. Your brother and your sister is going to be on your side, but they have free will, right? We cannot force someone to do what we want them to do even if we think it's better."
"She was really very hardworking and she was sacrificial for our family because she was the one who maintained us on our feet during the pandemic."
And on Sunday, police arrested and charged 68-year-old Miguel Angel Gomez for the crime of murder.
And now, while the community remembers the elderly woman - and the coconut crusts she would sell in the town - they're hoping for a little bit of peace now that Gomez is behind bars.
Gomez will be remanded for the murder.
