Pastor Decapitated In Bizarre Murder: Police Find Cleric’s Head In A Bucket, Arrest 5

A 47-year-old Mennonite pastor, Llewellyn Lucas, has been decapitated, the police finding his severed head in a black bucket, Belize authorities say. Five men have been arrested and charged with an array of crimes, including kidnapping, conspiracy, and murder. And as police in Belmopan, Belize, investigated, they have found that the man accused of committing the murder of the decapitated pastor is a man of multiple identities and has led several lives, not all of them on the right side of the law.

Breaking Belize News reported back in mid-July that Belmopan police arrested a Guyanese/Canadian national, William Mason, when they found the severed head of Pastor Llewellyn Lucas, 47, in a sack in a bucket in Mason’s Ford pick-up. As the hours wore on, four more men were arrested in what is alleged to be a conspiracy among the men that involves kidnapping, the killing of the pastor, and attempting to cover it up. Besides Mason, a 46-year-old businessman whose real name is Ted Ouellett, Ernest Castillo, 23; Keron Fernandez, 29; Ashton Vanegas, 29; and 30 year-old Terence Fernandez were also arrested.

CTV3 in Belize reported that Pastor Lucas was taken to a sprawling farm on Friday, July 15, owned by the murder suspect, Mason. He had originally gone to Mason as an ambassador for a couple who claimed that Mason owed them money. It was there that Mason reportedly stabbed the pastor several times before he decapitated him. According to the Jamaica Observer, police said Pastor Lucas’ torso was disposed of at that same farm owned by Mason, which is located near Mile 32 on the Western Highway. News 5 (Belize) reported that Acting Commissioner of Police Russell Blackett stated a water pump was used to help drain a pond on the property were the murder allegedly took place to search for the murder weapon. A search of the property also turned up what looked to be the charred remains of a body.

“We searched the farm and we found what appears to be burnt remains of a body, as given to us during our interviews. That has been sent to the forensics for analysis.”

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According to News 5, the Belize Police Department already had William Mason under surveillance for the suspected kidnapping of a Canadian couple. When officials confronted Mason in Belmopan and asked permission to search him, they were shocked in finding a head in a bucket in the man’s vehicle. But that was just the tip of the iceberg with regard to William Mason, who, as it would turn out, wasn’t actually William Mason at all.

Breaking News Belize took the initiative to do a little investigating themselves, finding that William Mason actually has been in existence for only a year, the man known as Mason having applied for and received a birth certificate in that name in 2015 that listed his place of birth as Crooked Tree Village, Belize District, Belize. But Mason was actually born in Guyana, the news agency discovered, and he is known by several aliases as well as being connected to a number of alleged scams perpetrated in several countries and suspected criminal activities. He is associated with a tourism business in Belize and reportedly has political connections as well.

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The story of the Belize pastor being decapitated, a horrific act that in and of itself usually garners world attention, seems to have passed with very little notice. The alleged murder stands in sharp contrast to the decapitation of French priest Jacques Hamel this past week, a killing carried out by two teens who pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL). That murder and hostage incident, also covered by the Inquisitr, ended when the two extremists were shot and killed by French authorities and was initially reported as a decapitation by some outlets (although reports later altered the description to a slashed throat), making international headlines for days.

As for the five men in Belize, they are being held and charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder,, kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. More charges may be forthcoming, but it is unclear whether or not the charges will pertain to the Mennonite pastor being decapitated or will encompass more of William Mason’s other activities.

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