A US ex-pat living in Belize died this week after she was hit in the head by a conch shell thrown by her Belizean husband, who crashed the golf cart they were in into a bar and subsequently got into a fight with bar employees.
Jennifer Lynn Griffith’s husband, 41-year-old Maynor Rene Ancona, has been charged with manslaughter by negligence for throwing the shell that hit her in the head during the brawl.
Griffith, 46, was taken to a clinic, where she refused medical care and went home, Police Commissioner Chester Williams said. She came back to the clinic the next day with head pain and died, the San Pedro Sun reported.
According to Loop News, an autopsy determined that she died from penetration to the head by a projectile.
“We can say definitively now that it was a conch shell that caused her death,” said Williams.
Williams said that after collecting statements from people involved with the fight and other witnesses, investigators determined that a “close male relative” threw the conch shell that hit Griffith. He has been arrested and charged with manslaughter by negligence.
“He was throwing it indiscriminately and then it caught her and that led to her death. It’s a very sad situation. For sure he did not intend to but in law there is a thing that is called transfer of malice,” said Williams.
LoveFM.com identified the “close male relative” as Ancona, Griffith’s common-law husband.
