7 News Belize

To Live And Die In L.A.
posted (July 4, 2013)
Last night, we showed you the tragic killing of 27 year-old Belizean American Yolanda Smith Major, who was shot to death in front of her 2 year-old daughter in LA on Tuesday.

Detectives from the Sherriff's Department in LA are still not completely sure what the motive was, and why the assailants targeted her group.

Well, while that investigation continues, her family is starting to make preparations for her burial, and today 7News caught up with her father in Belize.

According to him, he intends to be in the US for her burial:

Joseph Smith - Father of Deceased
"My daugher is in California - she called me a little while ago so they are trying to arrange the flight for me to go."

Daniel Ortiz
"So you plan to be there when she's being buried."

Joseph Smith
"Yes, I'm planning to be there."

Daniel Ortiz
"Sir, tell us about your daughter - her life here in Belize and then when she decided to move away."

Joseph Smith
"Well she was born in Chicago, she was raised with us for a couple years and I think she went over with her mom in the states and from she went - she never came back to Belize. She went and was about 13 years in her teenage years and she went to California. Quite a long time I hadn't seen her and when my sister died in California and we went over there for the funeral - that's the time when I met her over there, a couple years ago. I advised her and talked to her, I told her about God and I gave her a spiritual book to read and I encouraged her to try and do the right thing. She's a nurse and has her job and works very hard - I guess she didn't want to be seen with the guy that she lived with because they weren't making life right together so she decided to be by herself. I don't know if that's the reason why she lost her life, I don't know."

As we've reported, Smith Major is the child of Mae Brown and is Education Minister Patrick Faber's first cousin. She was also the youngest of 13 children.

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