As we told you at the top, twins Paul Esquiliano and Paula Belisle - both believed to be in their early 60's - were found dead inside her Hattieville home this afternoon - and this double murder has struck the entire village. By all accounts, the elderly siblings lived a peaceful life driven by their faith. The brother was a mennonite and the sister an adventist, but they remained very close and he would visit her daily. It was during one of those visits that the gunman entered the home sometime after 2:00 and opened fire, killing them both. A long time friend of almost 4 decades told us that she still can't believe the news.
Voice of: Friend of Deceased
"I sat down for a minute on Facebook and I saw both of their pictures and I barely read the caption and I threw away my phone and I said no, this can't be so and I picked up back my phone and I was trying to call people that I know to find out what happened and in between messaging, please tell me this isn't true. Why would someone want to kill Paul and Paula because to say, they're God fearing people, for the life of me I couldn't even… I don't know what to say, it's so incomprehensible to see that. So finally I got one of my daughter and I said I saw something but I can't believe it. She said, yes mommy it's true. I said the both of them? She said yes. I said can't be, why would someone want to kill Paul and Paula? They're Christian people and they're Christian people from they're young because I know them from way back when. You could say we practically grew up in the same Christian circle. So this is really shocking. I could imagine most of the villagers have the same disbelief, the same feeling, I still can't get it together. Me and Paul were best friends until I moved to Orange Walk and I came back and we see each other, I saw him two weeks ago in Belize City. He told me that he retired, he's enjoying retirement. This is so unbelievable."
Courtney Menzies:
"And I understand Paul comes and visits his sister everyday."
Voice of: Friend of Deceased
"Oh yeah, especially since her husband passed away so suddenly, he never left her side. He was always here especially now that he's not working, never left his sister's side."
"For Paula, this year has been such a rough year because her husband passed away suddenly, and then couple months after that, it was her baby girl that died and now her."
Paul Smith had four children, and his sister leaves behind four as well. We'll have more on this story tomorrow.
