Belize police welcome help from FBI
U.S. aid in strangulation case provides comfort to family
The FBI is in Belize investigating the deaths of a Canadian-American couple found dead last week.
It’s a development that is “very much” bringing great comfort to the mother of one of the victims.
“I just think that (the FBI) can do more than what the (local) police are doing,” said Char DeVoursney in a telephone interview from her home in Atlanta. “It’s another step in the right direction in terms of finding out what happened.”
Her son Drew DeVoursney, 36, and Francesca Matus, 52, of Keswick, Ont., disappeared after leaving a bar in the northern town of Corozal on April 25. Local police say they were found strangled, with their wrists duct-taped, last Monday, a day after Matus’s abandoned car was found.
Last week, a Canadian man was charged with theft in an unrelated robbery, said Raphael Martinez, a spokesperson for police in Corozal. Local reports identify the man as a tenant living on Matus’s seaside property. He remains a person of interest in the deaths, Martinez said.
The Star has chosen not to name the man because he has not been charged in connection with the death.
He was remanded in custody on Friday following a court appearance on the theft charges.
At that appearance, a local television reporter asked the man if he was involved in Matus’s death. “Not at all. She is a very good friend of mine. Absolutely not,” he said.
On Saturday, Global Affairs Canada spokesperson said the department is “providing consular assistance to a Canadian citizen in police custody in Belize, and their family.”
“To protect the privacy of the individual, no further information can be released,” Jocelyn Sweet said.
Martinez said local police would be more than willing to liaise with Canadian police, in addition to the FBI agents already on the ground.
“We appreciate any assistance that we can get, to get to the bottom of this,” he said.
“And if we have some Canadian officials who want to be part of this (investigation), we have absolutely no problem with that.”
Martinez said he had no knowledge of the American investigation. “They haven’t shared anything so far, but it’s still pretty early.”
Spokespeople for the FBI and RCMP could not be reached on Saturday. DeVoursney said a member of the FBI contacted her on Friday to offer assistance and let her know that U.S. agents were in Belize.
The FBI contact “said sometimes these things drag on for a long time,” DeVoursney recalled. “She confirmed what I was feeling: this (investigation) could take a while.”
In the meantime, DeVoursney said she is in regular contact with her son David, who travelled to Belize to retrieve Drew’s belongings and bring home his ashes.
She said David is waiting to see if the FBI wants to speak with him before he returns to the United States.
She said Drew had been dating Francesca Matus for about three months and that neither she nor David had met her.