A year later, no suspects in Belize killings

Francesca Matus, 52, a Canadian, and her lover were found dead in field

It has been one year since the bodies of Francesca Matus and her American lover were found tangled together in a sugar cane field in Belize.

A local pathologist determined that the 52-year-old Matus, who lived part of the year in the Central American country, and Drew DeVoursney, 36, had died of strangulation. Their murders remain unsolved.

Ottawa’s travel advisory for Belize says tourists should exercise a high degree of caution due to the high rate of violent crime.

Just how scarce police resources are in Belize became evident soon after the bodies of Matus and DeVoursney were discovered by a farmer on May 1, 2017 — six days after they disappeared.

Joe Milholen, who was friends with the pair, remembered being called by police to identify the bodies. When he showed up at the field late in the afternoon, a detective told him to wait until a pathologist arrived.

“We had to wait all night for the pathologist,” he said in an interview from Belize. “This guy was telling me how busy they had been … there was a rash of murders and suspicious deaths.”

Milholen was one of the last people who saw Matus and DeVoursney alive. They had gotten together with a few other friends at a bar the night before the duo went missing.

The disappearances the next day set off a massive search by local police and a large number of expats.

On the fifth day, a hunter found Matus’s truck in a field stripped of almost everything, including the battery, Milholen said. The next day, the bodies were found about six kilometres away.

The murder investigation is ongoing, but the families say there have been no developments. A Canadian who was considered a person of interest in the case has also been cleared.

Meanwhile, Matus’s family has lost hope her murder will ever be solved.

The last time they spoke with local police was in August, when the lead investigator told Rino they had yet to analyze the victims’ phone records due to lack of resources. Rino was also told that police had no money to make long-distance phone calls. “There’s no way they’re going to spend a dime to talk to me,” Rino said.

Global Affairs Canada say 190 Canadians have been killed in foreign countries between 2013 and 2017, and that does not include cases where the families of the victims chose not to seek assistance from Ottawa.

Walter McKay, a policing and security expert, said the government’s ability to help in such murder cases is limited.

“They have no powers of authority,” McKay said. “My advice is don’t expect any help … don’t expect justice, because you won’t get it.”