A GTA mom’s Caribbean murder looked like a hit. But she didn’t seem like a target

Whoever murdered York Region mother Francesca Matus and her American boyfriend Drew (Devo) DeVoursney in the tiny Caribbean country of Belize didn't do it for the money.

Matus's brother Tony Rino is sure of that much.

100 per cent, it was a hit," Rino, an Ottawa school teacher, said in an interview. If it was a robbery, they would have taken everything ... Nothing was stolen, other than my sister's cellphone."

After that, things get murkier for Rino, who has done his best to probe into the murder of his big sister, who was 52 when she was slain in the spring of 2017.

Rino says he's sure he's not getting the full story from officials in Belize.

Messages to the police there about the case from the Star were not returned.

People know what happened," Rino says. No one's saying."

The decomposing bodies of Matus and DeVoursney were found by a farmer on May 1, 2017, in a sugar cane field, their hands bound with duct tape, with more duct tape on their mouths.

Matus, 52, a property manager, still wore her jewelry and the wallet of DeVoursney, 36, was still in his pocket.

A check of Matus's home in the District of Corozal on the Caribbean Sea suggested nothing was stolen from there.

An envelope of cash, her passport and her luggage were in clear view in their home.

She had planned to fly back to Toronto on April 26, 2017, while DeVoursney was planning to go back to Atlanta, Ga., where his mother lived.

On April 25, 2017, the night before her scheduled flight, there was a going-away party at Scotty's Bar and Grill in Corozal and then the couple left together in her 1998 white Isuzu Rodeo.

Matus never made the flight to Toronto. Her luggage, passport and cash were found in her Belize home, set off the beaten path on a 2 acre property.

Nothing was touched," Rino said. Nothing."

Concerned friends from Scotty's formed their own search party.

The bodies were discovered by a farmer in a sugar cane field in northern Belize, near rural Chan Chen.

The farmer later told a reporter that he was alerted to the bodies by something that smelled evil in his sugar cane field.

He found the bodies decomposed in the heat, with DeVoursney stacked on top of Matus.

They were both still wearing their clothes from the going-away party at Scotty's.

DeVoursney had on a Toronto Maple Leafs T-shirt while Matus wore pink denim shorts, a blouse and wedge shoes.

Rino says he was troubled by what he considers a low standard for local police.

They didn't even have a body bag," Rino says. My sister got brought out on an old door. Drew was brought out on a piece of plywood."

An autopsy determined they had been strangled.

Rino wondered how the couple were brought to the sugar cane field, which was due to be burned within days. Did the killer or killers know about the scheduled fire, and hope it would destroy evidence?

How were they subdued? Matus was a slender five-foot-one but DeVoursney was an athletic six-foot-six, and a combat-hardened ex-Marine from Georgia.

Rino is well acquainted with local habits, as he visited Belize for 11 years before the murders.

He says it's commonplace for local police to stop vehicles, something he has experienced himself. He says the stops are made by several police officers, holding long rifles.

How do you get taken over?" Rino asks. (DeVoursney's) a big guy. He's had two tours (of combat duty.) The only way it can happen is it's a bunch of guys with guns."

Rino notes that his sister lived at the end of an isolated dirt road. She had a boarder at her home who drove a white vehicle, just like her.

That boarder later tearfully said he wondered if he was the intended target.

Rino wonders if his sister pulled over in a case of mistaken identity, and then things somehow spun out of control.

Searchers found her 1998 white Isuzu Rodeo in another field, about 15 kilometres from Scotty's.

Everything, including the battery, was stripped from the Isuzu.

There was also grease on the steering wheel, a way to ruin fingerprints.

Hit men know how to do that," Rino says.

His sister and the former Marine met in Belize. Why they were drawn there no mystery.

Stunning scenery, a relaxed lifestyle and a relatively low cost of living have made the former British colony popular with North American and European ex-pats.

Rino, an Ottawa area high school teacher, had taken groups of students there for 11 years.

It haunts him that he suggested to his sister that she check the country out.

It was me that said, Hey, this is a great place to go,'" Rino says.

However, the tiny Central American country, with just 400,000 people, is as notable for a high murder rate, the seventh-highest per capita murder rate on earth in 2020, with 38 murders per 100,000 people, according to a study by World Atlas. At the top of the list was El Salvador, with 62 murders per 100,000 people, followed by Jamaica at 57 and Venezuela at 56. Canada placed 151st, at 1.8.

While the murder rate is high in Belize, the conviction rate is low. Most crimes remain unresolved and unprosecuted," states an advisory by the U.S. State Department. A lack of capacity, resources, and training impede the ability of local police to effectively investigate crime and apprehend offenders."

Rino says he was poorly treated by police throughout the investigation. I was getting the runaround," he said. The Belize police never called me once. I was the one who always called them."

Rino says he spoke with his sister on FaceTime a few days before she vanished.

She said she can't wait to be back to everybody," Rino said. That was the last time I saw her."

Matus and DeVoursney had come to Belize for far different reasons, and met three months before their deaths.

Matus was the mother of grown-up male twins who lived in Toronto. She was successful in real estate and had several properties in the GTA.

Before he enlisted in the Marines, DeVoursney was a theology and philosophy student at a private Christian school in North Carolina, which he attended on academic and soccer scholarships.

He was so moved by the 9/11 terror attacks on New York that he dropped out of college and enlisted in the Marines. He served two combat tours in Iran and Afghanistan and then returned to Afghanistan as a private contractor, teaching Marines how to use technological equipment in the field.

Easing out of military life had been difficult. He tried to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder and tried his hand at a number of careers in an effort to readjust to life as a civilian.

There was work on oil rigs and with a solar company and then a welding job. He also learned how to scuba dive. At the time of his death, he had plans to move back to Georgia and learn how to operate heavy equipment, and then work with his brother.

There was a news report that Matus had been getting unspecified threats but hadn't aired them with police.

There were also questions in the media about where the bodies were found - close to the Mexican border, where drug wars were raging between rival gangs. Had the couple seen something they shouldn't have?

Rino doesn't find that explanation plausible. He can't stop wondering if his sister's white Isuzu was mistaken for the white vehicle driven by the boarder in her house.

The FBI offered a reward of up to $10,000 (US) for information leading directly to an arrest for the murder of DeVoursney. There were no takers, but plenty of cranks.

People were just making up things, just to get a reward," Rino said.

Meanwhile, one of the homicide investigators tried to buy his sister's Isuzu for $250 (US), Rino says, adding the officer then backed out of the deal.

Rino knows plenty of facts about the case but has no closure.

They say time heals," Rino says. Time never heals. You just adjust your life. You just adjust to the loss."

The murders remain unsolved.

Peter Edwards is a Toronto-based reporter primarily covering crime for the Star. Reach him via email: pedwards@thestar.ca