Couple were strangled, police in Belize say
Friends devastated by death of Canadian mother of two who was ‘living her dream’ in Central America
Francesca Matus was living her dream.
The 52-year-old mother of two had always wanted a warm, sunny place to escape to during the Canadian winters, and after establishing herself as a successful property manager in Toronto, she found a retreat in the tropical Central American nation of Belize.
“That’s just what Francesca was — she was someone who was very simple and living her dream,” Matus’s real estate mentor and friend Robert Di Matto told the Star on Tuesday. “Not over the top, not extravagant in terms of her lifestyle, just a very simple life . . . Belize is where she wanted to be.”
But that dream turned into a nightmare for Matus’s friends and family when she and her American boyfriend, 36-year-old Drew DeVoursney, disappeared after leaving a bar in the northern Belizean town of Corozal on April 25.
Police found their bodies in a sugar cane field Monday, a day after finding Matus’s car, abandoned, about 15 kilometres from the bar. The couple had been strangled, according to police. DeVoursney’s body was on top of Matus’s, their wrists were ducttaped and both were in an “advanced state of decomposition.”
Matus had been scheduled to fly home the day after she disappeared. A friend who was supposed to drive her to the airport found her house locked, with her packed suitcases, passport and money still inside.
The news has been “absolutely devastating,” Matus’s friend Nikki-Monique Kurnath said Tuesday. The two met about a year and a half ago, she said, and became instant best friends. Although Matus was about a decade older, she exuded a youthful energy, loved going out and was “happy, positive, care-free.”
“She was the person that would make you smile when you had a cruddy day, she would be the sunshine. . . . She was the love and light of a cloudy day,” Kurnath said.
“We’re not going to see that smile again in person, and we’re not going to feel that energy, having her hold us and kiss us and calling us ‘bella,’ and having her tell us that she loved us. That’s the hardest thing.”
Originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Matus most recently lived in Keswick, but owned several properties in Toronto. She began travelling to Belize four years ago, Kurnath said, living there from December to April and managing her Toronto properties remotely. She had never run into problems before, Kurnath said.
“She never flashed her (wealth), she wasn’t like that,” she said. “She had everything planned and she was very organized. There was no cause for alarm prior to this.”
Di Matto, who’d known Matus for eight years, said the same; there had never been any signs of trouble.
“She only said really good things about Belize. She loved it there,” he said. “She loved the bay, she loved lying in her hammock, she loved the spirit and the energy that it brought.”
Di Matto last heard from Matus April 24, when she sent him a message saying she was flying home Wednesday and would pick up her keys from his office Thursday. She ended the message with her usual upbeat sign-off: “Positive vibes.”
It wasn’t until Thursday night, when another friend of Matus’s called, that Di Matto realized something was wrong.
“She said, ‘Francesca didn’t get on the plane,’ ” Di Matto recalled, his voice breaking. “And that’s when our world went for a tailspin.”
Matus’s twin sons, 22, her mother and brother have gathered in Toronto and are “coping” with her death, he added.
In an email, Global Affairs spokesperson Austin Jean confirmed the death of a Canadian in Belize but did not provide further details.
“Consular services are being provided to the family during this difficult time. Canadian consular officials continue to liaise with local authorities to gather additional information,” Jean wrote.
The U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs spokesperson said the bureau was “aware of reports” that a U.S. citizen had died in Belize but could not provide further comment.
In Georgia, DeVoursney’s mother, Char, said she learned about her son’s death from the U.S. embassy in Belize. They told her the pair had been murdered and found with duct tape around their wrists, she said.
“I’m not able to really do anything, kind of just sit and think and cry and that’s all I’m capable of at the moment,” she said.
Her other son, David, was at the Atlanta airport Tuesday morning with DeVoursney’s best friend, Brandon Barfield, waiting to board a flight to Belize.
“He’s going to go bring my boy home,” Char DeVoursney said through tears. Drew DeVoursney was a big man with a big heart and a big smile, his mother said.
The six-foot-six former marine had overcome post-traumatic stress disorder after serving two tours in Iraq, she said.
About four years ago, he bought a piece of property with Barfield in Belize — with nothing on it — and went down in December with the idea of starting his own dive company, his mother said.
“He’s a real adventure boy, that’s what I call him, my adventure boy because he’s done so many different things,” Char DeVoursney said.
He ended up going to Afghanistan for two years after he left the marines, as a contractor to help soldiers learn how to use technology on the battlefield.
“I’ve dreaded news of his death, but that was when he was in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Char DeVoursney said through tears. “Now he’s coming home in a way I’ve always dreaded.” With files from the Canadian Press, Ellen Brait and Peter Goffin