He Left to Collect Pay… But Ends Up Dead on Roadside

Tonight, a small southern community is grappling with a brutal killing that has left a family searching for answers… and justice. Forty-five-year-old Louis Alberto Martinez was found dead early this morning along the Thomas Vincent Ramos Highway, bearing signs of a violent attack. Martinez left home the evening before to collect money owed to him but never returned. News Five’s Shane Williams traveled to Santa Cruz Village, where loved ones are mourning the loss of a man, they say was the heartbeat of their home.

 

Shane Williams Reporting…

This quiet stretch of highway near Maya King in South Stann Creek has become the center of a tragedy that has shaken an entire community. Just after sunrise today, police made a grim discovery along the Thomas Vincent Ramos Highway, the lifeless body of forty-five-year-old Louis Alberto Martinez who is a familiar face in Santa Cruz Village. Martinez is a skilled construction worker and handyman, known for his routine and being dependable, always the first to rise in the morning.

 

Thresia Ritchie, Niece of Deceased

“This morning I get a phone call middle of work cause normally I’d be up by two a.m. working and normally I would’ve look out to see him, but when I get the phone call after six, da middle of preparation for work. And the officer said, Miss Richie, I don’t know how you will take this news but I think da yo uncle de down ya and we need yo fi come identify the body.  And when I reached out there, sadfully da mi he because identify ah by the clothing. So far as we know, is that he left home yesterday, four-thirty-minutes to five to collect his pay and from since then until this morning we heard that they find ah dead.”

 

According to his family, Martinez left home Thursday evening around 4:30… heading out to collect money owed to him, a payment he had been trying to secure for days. He never made it back.

 

Thresia Ritchie

“He the hunt ih pay two days. I wa be honest with unu. Two days he the hunt ih pay. and they never, he never receive it. I guess they person mi the give ah hard time and he tell ah come back and so ih gone back. And yesterday he gone back and say, he tell mi ma, he say, I noh have no money pan me. He say, you could gimme a five dollars. He say that I gwen out deh broke. I noh want de out deh with empty pocket. And soh my ma give ah the five dollars and that was the last time she spoke to ah and she saw ah.” 

 

Hours later, his body was found near mile twenty-one on the Thomas Vincent Ramos Highway. He had been stabbed and shot. Assistant Superintendent of Police Stacy Smith says investigators are now working to piece together Martinez’s final moments.

 

ASP Stacy Smith, Staff Officer

“ What we have gathered so far in the course of the investigation is that Mr. Martinez departed from his residence sometime around 4:30 PM the day prior believed to be in route to picking up his salary from an employer. We have since launched an investigation into his movements thereafter to see how that can assist with the ongoing investigation.”

 

Village Chairman Vincent Scott says the killing has rattled Santa Cruz, a close‑knit community where violence is rare and tragedies like this hit especially hard.

 

Vincent Scott, Chairman, Santa Cruz Village

“This morning I was out there helping them to secure the scene and make some phone calls to make sure that we get to the relative to identify, and yeah, that’s, this morning we just met the body on the road and we saw some shells on the ground. Santa Cruz Village is a working village, and so everybody goes to work in the morning and then in the evening they come back in. So an incident like this now, it make us wonder. Because it’s not a gang area or anything like that. And the person who it happened to also is not a person who is in any gang or anything. It’s just a regular person who goes around and work. And so it, it make us wonder, what happened. And we really have to find out after the police do their investigation what they find.”

 

Tonight, a family mourns the loss of a man they describe as hardworking, reliable and deeply loved.

 

Thresia Ritchie

“I  have faith within the officers that are dealing with the case right now. I have faith within them. I leave it – all we want do da just make it run smoothly. There is not a we could do right now.”

 

Shane Williams for News Five.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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