And while it was a killing in board daylight in the city today, an
American couple was terrorized inside their home in Roaring Creek Village on
Monday. It occurred at 4:30 in the afternoon on a lonely stretch of road in
the Roaring Creek area which leads to what was the Roaring River Resort. It
was a resort but it is where American nationals Charles Nutsh and his wife Arylss
Nutsch have called home since they moved from Kansas to Belize two years ago.
But the couple lost their sense of security and most of their belongings on
Monday when three armed men dressed completely in black with gloves and masks
barged into their home. The ordeal lasted 2 hours during the couple along with
their son were robbed, assaulted, and then tied up. The 71 year old Arlyss Nutsch
says they had just returned home from Cayo when the attackers knocked on her
door.
Arlyss Nutsch, Robbery Victim
“When I came to the door and I saw them I ran into the kitchen area,
I was going to bolt the door, and they hit the door and then this guy knocked
me down where I fell he jumped on top of me and started to choke me and I think
I may have passed out for a while because when I woke up I had an electrical
cord around my hands. Evidently they had hit my son with a board and marched
him into the house and he was in the same room with me when I became aware.
I didn’t know what had happened to my husband but evidently when he went
down to the driveway to come back he wasn’t aware anyone was in the house.
They were waiting for him and they jumped him when he walked through the door.
There was a lot of activity, they were demanding money and all this stuff 
and then just a lot of activity, demanding money and all this stuff and I told
them we didn’t keep much money and they were threatening to kill my son
if we didn’t come up with a certain amount of money and then they just
began to…”
It was sheer terror for the elderly couple and it got worst when a gunshot
was fired.
Arlyss Nutsch,
“They had a gun and then I heard the gun go off. I couldn’t
see my husband for a while and when I saw my husband he had blood and I didn’t
know what had happened so I just stayed there for a while because I couldn’t
move and they went through the house and wrecked the whole house and took everything
we had basically, went through even our stuff in storage and dumped every thing
out. They ended up tying all of us up. They finally took our vehicle, asked
the keys for our vehicle and left.”
Keith Swift,
“Was your husband shot?”
Arlyss Nutsch,
“No they just shot a bullet, evidently when they were beating him
on the head with the gun one of the bullets dislodged, that’s what we
think.
They left with everything basically. All we have are some of our clothes
and stuff like that but they took everything; cameras, computers, car, radios,
binoculars, everything.”
The couple’s 2007 Ford Escape was today recovered in a remote area of
Santa Elena.
Arlyss Nutsch,
“I didn’t know I could be that frightened. They seemed to be
familiar with the area and we actually are pretty private people.”
Keith Swift,
“What do you do now?”
Arlyss Nutsch,
“Just try to scrape enough together to survive. That’s it.”
As mentioned in the story police have recovered the couple’s
2007 Ford Escape in a remote area of Santa Elena. One theory is that the men
may have been trying to reach the Arenal Road. Anyone with information can call
crime stoppers at 0-800-922-TIPS.
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