A murder probe has been launched after a British volunteer was found stabbed to death in an apartment in Belize.
The decomposing body of Michele Anison, 56, was found in the Central American country last month, where she had been working at a children’s home.
Mrs Anison, from Staffordshire, had not been seen for a week when friends became concerned for her welfare and she was found when her landlady came to collect the rent at her flat in the village of Ladyville on November 17.
She sustained several wounds to her neck and chest and four people have been arrested in connection with the death, but no charges have brought against anyone.
The volunteer’s grey Nissan Rogue was also missing from the car park as well as her passport and other personal documents.
British volunteer Michele Anison, left and right, was found stabbed to death at her apartment in Belize and local police have launched a murder probe, arresting four people
Neighbours in Belize said she lived alone but was ‘very friendly’ with the community.
Alejandro Cowo of the Belize Police Department said: ‘There was no forced entry into the apartment. The body had several stab wounds in the chest and in the neck area.’
Locals said that the British woman was friendly and spent a lot of time among them.
One friend Altereith Smith said he saw her almost everyday shopping in local stores.
‘She comes here every other day or so to get her food, her drinks or whatever, she comes here and associate with everybody regardless of who it is,’ he said.
‘Whether you are rich or whether you are poor. She was such a lovely lady. It is hurtful to see her gone that way.
‘Her family is in England. The only family members she has here are the children that she is taking care of right now.
‘That’s the hurtful part that the children will miss her. So we have loss our love, because she is loved to everyone and it is so shocking the way she went.’
Mrs Anison, 46, originally of Staffordshire, had been volunteering at a children’s home in the Central American country and had been there for five years
Assistant Superintendent Cowo said: ‘We have information that she was a very friendly person, and that she was out with the villagers, socialising with them.
‘But the important thing from the information we got is that she had never taken anybody to her house to socialise.
‘All the socialising that she did was outside in the establishment, but not at her house. We are looking at some individuals that we believe was close to her.’
Mrs Anison had lived in Belize for five years and was building a new home not far from the apartment she rented.
Colleagues at the Liberty Children’s Home where she volunteered described her as ‘sweet’ and ‘caring’.
Children’s home director Agatha Valentine told local media: ‘We want to get some justice for Michele.’
Her body was flown home earlier this month and a funeral service for the ‘dearly loved’ woman was held near her home in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.
Staff at the children’s home, pictured, described Mrs Anison as ‘sweet and caring’
Relatives have said they are too upset to speak about Mrs Anison’s death.
But her brother Jeffrey Quaile, who lives in Scotland, has paid tribute to his ‘beautiful sister’ on social media.
A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: ‘Our staff are supporting the family of a British woman following her death in Belize and are in contact with the Belizean authorities.’
Despite a tiny population of just 335,000 Belize consistently ranks among the top 10 in the world for homicides, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.