Former Secretary of the Armed Forces Juan Rene Beauchamps was murdered in his Abreu, Cabrera, province of Maria Trinidad Sanchez on Tuesday, 26 December. The 70 year old former military died from a gunshot wound fired by a gun held by a man that was barely 50 centimeters away, as per the autopsy report. The murder was witnessed by Maria Guzman Almonte, a 37 years old, who was accompanying the former chief of the Armed Forces as he returned to his Abreu farm home at around 10:30 pm. She witnessed the homicide and later suffered through being raped by the assailant. Some news reports speculate that the murderer did so in vengeance over a brutal beating that Beauchamps inflicted on the assailant’s father. Others say the motive was robbery. The assailants, suspect to have been four, were inside the Beauchamps home prior to these arriving. The general was unarmed at the time. Reportedly they stole a pistol and a rifle from the home. The police has arrested 23-year old Henry Rafael Acevedo Santos after a four-hour pursuit. Mary Guzmán identified him as her rapist, according to news reports. The National Police changed the commander of the police in the area. News reports say the authorities suspect the same gang killed by gunshot Canadian Robert Ethier, a well known healer and a spiritual teacher who made the Dominican Republic his home twenty years ago and was murdered on 24 December in nearby Cabrera. There have been similarities in the two murders. Ethier was shot to the torax by the assailants that later fled when one of the shots hit the ceiling, making watchmen aware of their presence. The same gang is also suspect of being responsible for the aborted holdup at gunpoint of Rafucho Alonso, who had sold the land to the murdered Canadian. His assailants fled when Alonso confronted them at gunpoint.
