And while Puerto's mother can rest a little easier knowing her son's suspected killer is behind bars, the mother of 18-year-old Christian Ramos is hoping she will get justice soon. Ramos was found floating in a barrel with gunshot wounds. His mother explained that he lives in Seine Bight, but had been staying with her since late November. He hardly ever left the house, until Christmas Eve, when she last saw him alive. Courtney Menzies has this story.
18-year-old Christian Ramos was executed with shots to the head, stuffed in a barrel, and dumped in a river. It's a vicious way for a teenager to die, especially one whom his mother says wasn't a troublemaker.
Ramos left his home on Christmas Eve after he had a disagreement with his sister. His mother waited up all night for him, but he never showed - not even for Christmas dinner. That's when she knew something was wrong.
Kenecia Velasquez, Mother of Deceased
"I told my gentleman take me around by Mr Junior and my uncle to see if Chris is there. When I got around there, Mr Junior, the man who does the tombstone behind Krem, he told me that he saw Chris this morning, he said Chris was around here giving a bit of trouble, he said but nothing too much to talk about."
"My taxi man come and I just verify from him last night when he came here yesterday that he saw my son Christmas Day like after 11 so he was still alive on Christmas Day, I believe he died Christmas night but I started to get worried because that's not like him not to come home and eat, he love his belly."
And while it wasn't like him to skip any meals, Velasquez says it was also strange that he didn't come home, since he grew up in Seine Bight with his father and stepmother, and didn't travel around the city a lot. That's what makes her believe he knew the person who killed him.
Kenecia Velasquez, Mother of Deceased
"I guess he just, wherever he went, I believe that he was familiar with the person that took him wherever he went because he is a child that doesn't even talk. He could sit here all day and if you don't say something to him or if he doesn't want this phone in my hand to go into that room behind there to lie down and get on this phone to text girls, only girls he texts. He doesn't go anywhere apart from my sister and my uncle around the lane."
"Miss, they chance my son out of his life. They shot my son in his head, three shots, turned him upside down in a drum like he was a piece of garbage. I held my baby 8 months, his father raised him until he was 18, between his two mothers and his dad and they took him and put him in a garbage bin, if I didn't want my child when he was born, I could have done that myself. The part that hurts me is how he died because they chanced my baby out of his life."
And according to Velasquez, though the police say he had a record, she explained that they must have him mixed up with someone else.
Kenecia Velasquez, Mother of Deceased
"That's not true, my son is not known to police. My son did something here where he broke up some windshields, he was drinking, it was his sister's birthday and I guess he catch horrors, me and my sister here were trying to stop him and he didn't stop, and we told him not to break the windshield, he still did it. But my son is not known to police, I called the police for him, they have another Christian Ramos and this young man, because you have to ask by date of birth, this young man looks like he does all sorts of things but he's named just like my son but different date of birth and different age. So for the police to say that my son is well known, he is not well known, he is not even from Belize City."
And now this mother just hopes that she will get justice for her only son.
Kenecia Velasquez, Mother of Deceased
"Right now I just have to pray to God and ask him to give me the strength and the support of family and friends, I'm just trying to make it. I couldn't even sleep, I got like five minutes sleep this morning and by the time I laid down, I was dreaming about my son. I can't even sleep, I have to jump up, it's not a nice feeling, people don't know what they do to you when they hurt your loved ones."
"But you see the people that killed my son, I have one thing to tell them, God is not sleeping, when they feel like they got away from society, they didn't get away from God. I don't need to know who they are, their day of reckoning is coming because you can't do wrong and believe that you will get away."
Police have no suspects as yet, but yesterday told us that they were following several leads.
