Heartache wrenches those who knew slain girl
Published: July 14, 2010
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The father of a teenage tourist who was killed in the crossfire during a shootout on St. Thomas on Monday sent his love to the people of the Virgin Islands on Tuesday — along with a plea for the violence to stop.
“I offer a great deal of love to the people, and I hope that they come together in love to stop the crime already,” Ceferino Pérez Mendez said in Spanish during a phone interview from the family’s home in Aguada, Puerto Rico, in that island’s western coastal valley region.
Liz Marie Pérez Chaparro, 14, was riding in a safari taxi in Smith Bay with her father, Ceferino, her mother, Aida Chaparro, and her 20-year-old brother, Amilcar, on Monday morning when shots rang out at a graveside service for another victim of violence.
Then came a hail of gunfire.
When the shooting stopped, Liz Marie turned to her father and said, “Papa, a bullet hit me,” Ceferino Pérez said.
Liz Marie was rushed to Schneider Hospital, but doctors were unable to save her.
It was a devastating end to a family vacation that had just started the day before — a once in a lifetime cruise to celebrate Liz Marie’s quinceañera, her 15th birthday, and Ceferino Pérez and Aida Chaparro’s 23rd anniversary, which was Thursday.
Quinceañera is an important rite of passage in many Latin American cultures, celebrating a girl’s coming of age and passage into womanhood.
“When our girls turn 15, we celebrate,” said Edith Pérez, a city employee in Aguada who said she has known Liz Marie’s family for years. Ceferino Pérez has worked for the city of Aguada for 22 years.
Liz Marie would have made 15 on July 29.
In Spanish, Ceferino Pérez described his daughter as “affectionate and loving,” a girl who liked playing volleyball and listening to merengue music. Liz Marie worked hard at school and brought home good grades, he said.
“She was everything — good, lovely, all of the purity of a young person,” Ceferino Pérez said. “She made very good grades; she was very talented.”
Liz Marie wanted to go to college and become a psychologist.
That dream came to an abrupt end Monday, when the family set out from the cruise ship Carnival Victory on its first stop after leaving San Juan on Sunday. They had just visited Coral World and were on their way back to the ship when the shooting started in Smith Bay.
After Liz Marie died, her family just wanted to go home. V.I. Tourism Department officials chartered a plane to take them there.
The family had scrimped and saved for 10 months to pay for the vacation — a gift for Liz Marie’s quinceañera, Ceferino Pérez said.
“They’re real humble people. To them, it wasn’t easy getting everything together, the money for the cruise,” Edith Pérez said. “It was a sacrifice.”
The townspeople of Aguada, which has about 46,000 residents, were shocked by the news of Liz Marie’s murder, said Luis “Berty” Echevarría, mayor of Aguada and a pediatrician who has treated both Liz Marie and her brother.
“Yesterday, here at city hall, we all went crazy,” Edith Pérez said. “Everybody was crying and very upset.”
“It is very, very horrible,” Echevarría said.
The close-knit family — upstanding citizens who are devoutly religious — are respected and loved, he said.
The mayor said that Ceferino Pérez is a man who loves God, but he could not say how well the family was coping with the unthinkable tragedy.
“He said, ‘I have broken my heart, but if God wants this, I have to accept him,’ ” Echevarría said. “But he is crying all the time.”
“There is many, many people, trying to give them psychological support, because it is not easy to lose a daughter like Liz Marie,” Echevarría said, adding that neighbors, family and friends crowded into the Perez home Tuesday to offer sympathy and condolences.
On Tuesday evening, people were still visiting the family to give “el pésame” — their condolences.
Liz Marie’s body is expected to be returned to Puerto Rico soon. Funeral arrangements have not yet been made.
