Tonight, 24 hours after Imarie Galvez's body was discovered near the Hummingbird Highway, her family is still trying to piece together who would want to kill their daughter and niece, and what she could possibly have done to incur that much hatred.
It's a crime that's sparked anger and disbelief not just in Galvez's hometown of Belmopan, but nationwide, and certainly in the hearts and minds of anyone who has ever loved and cared for a young woman in their own family.
We pick up Imarie's story in the wee hours of Sunday morning when she left home for what she may have believed was a quick outing. Cherisse Halsall was following the story in Belmopan this morning and spoke to Imarie Galvez's family on the steps of their home.
STANDUP
This dirt road of the Hummingbird Highway would have seemed a dark and treacherous place to 19-year-old Imarie Galvez after she was pulled from her bed at 1:00 Am for a possible early morning drive.
And just 3 days later it's where a search party of family members found her body.
And this morning all her family could do was ask who she could have trusted enough to drive her down this lonely road and why they would have wanted her dead?
This morning we spoke to the young woman's grieving mother who says that the murderer came like a thief in the night.
Joanna Caceres, Mother of the deceased
"Imari was my best friend we share everything together, every single thing she went through I used to know, I used to know most of her friends so I know, I know that this person whosoever did it Imarie wouldn't just go from my house, just go lie that."
"I didn't hear anything so somebody, somebody came for my daughter between 1 and it has to be somebody that was close to her because she would never never go with somebody that she didn't know and I know my daughter very well, no matter where she is or where she goes, she will always communicate with me wherever she goes she will send me a text, if she's with this friend she will send me a picture of which friend she was and that night she didn't and I know she was not going like we said somebody called and said we are going quick and come back because the first thing that she would have taken with her when she is going and she knows that she is going for a little while she will take her phone charger."
"So I know that somebody that is close to her, somebody that called her that is the person who did this to my daughter, she didn't deserve that, she didn't in two weeks her birthday was coming up and she told me mom I want a party for my birthday so I told her yes the Monday, not knowing, I still didn't know anything about what was happening or anything I started to prepare for her birthday. I started to buy stuff for her birthday but definitely it's somebody that did this and whosoever did it God knows the best."
"Before she went into her room I saw sadness in her face like she wanted to say something she, had wanted, I saw her face like she had been crying but honestly I didn't ask her anything."
Dinora Caceres, Aunt of the deceased
"She had to come down the steps and maybe when she came down the steps somebody, the person that was waiting for her here grabbed her or maybe they put her in the car as she went in the car maybe or I don't know because it has to be a vehicle, knocked her out, took her somewhere, alright, we don't know because you know she would have said something we would have heard something. I live right there so I believe that it, they were, it was already planed for her, like who would just literally take her out of her bed like she was already in her bed so to make someone just come and tell her… I believe this is what happened, they told her Imarie let's go to buy food maybe outside Cabana, you know they always sell food there and maybe that person told her like let's go or you know because like how my sister said she won't go out without her charger, she won't go out with clothes that she knows if she is going to party out there she wouldn't go like that and so it has to be somebody she really trusted, somebody she really trusted to go because I know my niece she would be a little cowardness in her that she had this fear I will not go there in that darkness because right there is dark."
But whether she was knocked out or deceived Galvez quite mysteriously went into the dark with a figure who today remains a mystery.
Her uncle by marriage, who led the search party that found her body told us what he encountered on an off road near mile 40
Said Enriquez, Relative of the deceased
"Probably less than a quarter mile, you know, smell, a smell hit we check so I did my Bally a sign that. I told the man, bwoy I smell something."
"When I was coming back now, now he told me ****[explicit] boy something stinks here and I said you no serious and he told me like right away you know we knew how she looked we knew her body so only if you want to lie to your face and your own self and say boy I don't think it's her but deep down I said that is her. In fact right away we tried to, we tried as much as we could to make the aunties and thing not see her."
"We want, we wanted like something to tell us boy this isn't her but you know we didn't hamper anything, we didn't touch anything we were just looking and he looked at me I looked at him like this is her bro."
When Imarie's aunts were allowed to see her body they concluded that her murder had to have been a crime of passion perpetrated by someone who they say must have developed an obsession with their beautiful niece.
But was it her boyfriend?
And indeed he was one of the last people to see her alive but the family say that while he picked her up earlier on Saturday evening, she came back rather quickly saying she wasn't going with him because he was drunk.
Cherisse Halsall;
"When a young girl goes missing like this, the finger first of all is always pointed at the boyfriend, what's your feeling about that?"
Said Enriquez, Relative of the deceased
"Well, I can't say anything about it you know because sometimes when you think, sometimes the most unexpected person is the one that pulls off this kind of stunts so emm, you know I really can't say anything about boyfriend, girlfriend or whatnot, that is very hard to just point at people right especially I guess her mom would have more on that topic right."
Joanna Caceres, Mother of the deceased
"No, I don't think so my heart doesn't give me that, my heart doesn't tell me that."
A release from the police department today referencing the discovery of what the Galvez family believes to be their daughter's body cautions that the remains found are still inconclusive. That release says, quote: " A DNA test will be conducted on the body of the deceased to verify identity." End quote.
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