It is called the Valley of Peace, but there was no peace and little mercy in the valley for 49-year-old Miguel Mendoza inside his home on Calle Sinley Street sometime between late Friday night and early Saturday morning. Mendoza and a worker on his farm, identified as 39-year-old Jose Luis Medina, were found dead inside his home at 7 am.
It was a shocking scene that Mendoza’s cousin Rudy Williams stumbled on. He went there looking for Medina, and Williams says sometime shortly after 7 am he lightly tapped on the door and got no answer. He tapped a bit harder and again there was no response. That is when he gently pushed the door. He says that, “the door fly open and when I walked in I see
it and just turned right around back.” What made him turn back is something unlike anything he has ever seen before.
On the ground was his cousin Miguel Mendoza; his head had been chopped open, but remarkably, Williams was still groaning and had signs of life. Jose Luis Medina was on the bed. He had a large chop wound to the head and showed no signs of life. It was a horrid scene; blood was everywhere, there were signs of struggle, and the stench of death.
A nervous and shocked Rudy Williams ran outside and alerted neighbours who then called police and informed Mendoza’s family. When police arrived both men were dead and were taken to the morgue for post mortems. Belmopan Police were then left with the job of piecing together the murder. The lead investigator Sgt. Solomon Westby from the Belmopan Police Station says that, “we at this moment cannot establish what exactly happened, but the police do know that two male persons were found with suspected chop wounds to the head and that is the circumstances at this moment.” Sgt. Westby almost appealed for information from any possible witnesses, asking that, “if anybody knows anything more than what the police have been investigating, they can kindly inform us. They can contact the Valley of Peace Police or the Belmopan Police.”
Linda Mendoza is Miguel’s sister; she described her brother’s murder as cold and remarked that her brother’s only crime might have been to let a stranger into his house. That is key since there were signs of forced entry to the house, since it is of note that when Rudy Williams made the discovery on Saturday morning the door wasn’t locked.
Jose Luis Medina was from Benque. Miguel Mendoza grew up in Roaring Creek and began farming 30 years ago. He had a 100 acre farm on which he grew a variety of fruits and vegetables. He was not married and had no children.
