UK mum who volunteered in Belize found knifed to death

A BRITISH woman volunteering in a Belize children’s home has been stabbed to death.

Michele Anison, 56, was found dead in her flat with neck and chest wounds.

A murder investigation has been launched into the killing of Mrs Anison, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, who moved to Central America in 2013 after her second husband Peter died from a brain tumour.

There was no sign of forced entry to the property but belongings including her car and passport had been stolen.

The mother, pictured, had been working for the Liberty Children’s Home in Ladyville, in the east of Belize.

Police said her body was found badly decomposed on November 17 when her landlady called to collect rent. Mrs Anison, who lived alone, had last been seen five days earlier.

There have been no arrests, though four people have been questioned.

Detective Alejandro Cowo said: ‘We are looking at some individuals we believe were close to her so we can get more information from them.’

Mrs Anison’s brother Jeffrey Quaile, 52, who lives in Whiteinch, Glasgow, said last night: ‘I spoke to her on a fairly regular basis – and the last thing we did was we laughed and joked and had tears in our eyes in our last conversation.

‘We were all close. Three brothers and a sister. We’ve always been supersonically close. Michelle’s husband passed away about five years ago. They’d always gone on holiday in South America, so she decided, as she was a qualified nurse, to work in the Liberty Children’s Home’

Mrs Anison, whose body was flown home for a funeral earlier this month, had been building a house not far from the flat she rented.

Belize, which has a population of 335,000, is in the global top ten for homicides, according to the United Nations.

The Foreign Office said it was in contact with the authorities in Belize and was supporting the family.