Man Charged for Murder of Elderly Farmer

Police have made a breakthrough in the death investigation of an elderly man in Independence Village, Stann Creek District, which has now been officially classified as murder.  Eighty-five-year-old Valentine Palma, a Belizean farmer, was initially discovered motionless inside his home in the Malacate Area on Sunday, March 15, shortly after five p.m. Palma’s body, which bore visible facial bruises but no open wounds, was transported to the Independence Polyclinic, where he was pronounced dead at 7:27 p.m. Initial reports indicate that Palma was last seen alive the previous evening by a neighbor. The grim discovery was made by his nine-year-old grandson, who had gone to deliver food and found him unresponsive on the floor.  At the time, the matter was being treated as a death investigation pending the results of a post-mortem examination.  That examination, conducted at the Medical School in Burrell Boom, confirmed that Palma died as a result of combined positional asphyxia along with blunt force trauma to the face.  Following further investigations, police have since moved swiftly. Today, authorities formally arrested and charged 29-year-old Zane Peter Pott, a Belizean laborer of Independence Village, with one count of murder.