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It's a disturbing story with more than one twist and one that Julia's family is still trying to comprehend. Cherisse Halsall reports.

This is Julia Millian Moran, a woman who by her family's account was a hard-working mother who lived a life dedicated to her children.

And while Julia's life was one of purpose she met her death here, at a farm on the Stann Creek Valley Road, at the bottom of a shallow grave.

Now her three children have been displaced, having to leave the home they shared with their mother to find shelter and solace with the only relatives they have left. But they're telling the story of their mother's last day and what led to her being taken from them.

Rosely Chan, Sister-in-Law of the deceased
"The kids say that he told her put on your pants not a skirt just put on pants. That's all we know because that's what they said. We get shocked because I could never have believed that something like that would have happened to her, I wouldn't have believed something like that for her. She had like three weeks or a month that she went to Santa Cruz."

Cherisse Halsall:
"So she had just moved there?"

Rosely Chan, Sister-in-Law of the deceased
"Yes, she just moved to Santa Cruz."

Cherisse Halsall
"Was she living there with a husband, with children?"

Rosely Chan, Sister-in-Law of the deceased
"Well I heard that the same man who did that he told her that she should stop working and that she should go and live in Santa Cruz."

Cherisse Halsall:
"Ok."

Rosely Chan, Sister-in-Law of the deceased
"So the man went with her too."

But If promises of a better life were made, they certainly didn't pan out.

Joseph Myvette, ACP Head, NCIB
"On Friday sometime around 5:30 PM independence police received a missing person's report from one Irma Millian who reported that on the 30th of July sometime around in the evening her sister Juila Millian Moran, 39 years of Santa Cruz village left home to an unknown destination left home and has not been seen or heard from since. Several attempts were made to contact her on her cell phone which was not successful as result police launched an investigation into the matter where they detained and interviewed one Jorge Leon 55 years also of Santa Cruz village and also having an address in Steadfast in the Stann Creek district. During the course of the investigation, police visited a farm at 16 miles on the Stann Creek Valley road where they found a shallow grave and upon digging up that grave the body of Julia Millian was found in an advanced state of decomposition. The body was removed from there and is awaiting a post mortem examination at this time."

And whatever those results are point Julia's boyfriend since he led the cops to the grave:

Cherisse Halsall:
"In your opinion was it a kidnapping?"

Rosely Chan, Sister-in-Law of the deceased
"That I can't tell you. I know that she disappear and they start to say that he took her and then he took her and then he came back again, because we called him and he said that he hasn't seen her and he came to check. The kids say that he took her."

Julia's body was identified by her brother Jorge, he tried to speak to us this morning but is still overcome by grief. Her sister in law Rosely maintains that she would never have left the children of her own volition.

Rosely Chan, Sister-in-Law of the deceased
"She didn't leave them like leave them because she, her husband died so she just works hard for them that's all I know, she works hard for the four of them. That's why I got shocked when I heard this news like that from her."

Milian's boyfriend 55-year-old Jorge Leon has been arrested and charged for her murder.

Julia is known to have been involved in a knife fight with Leon's daughter - and a police report had been made about it.