Over the weekend, a horrific triple murder in Monkey River Village left two children without their mother, father, and three-year-old brother, shaking the small coastal community to its core. On Saturday night, between seven and eight p.m., thirty-nine-year-old Elvis Garbutt Senior, thirty-year-old Emerita Garbutt, and their three children were ambushed by a gunman while traveling to the village. The attack resulted in three deaths and one injury. Thankfully, the two surviving children managed to escape and alert their relatives. The family is now grieving the heartbreaking loss of the parents and their young child. News Five’s Britney Gordon has the full report.
It was an ordinary evening for a family of five in Monkey River Village, returning home after an outing. Just minutes from their destination, their night took a tragic turn. A gunman with a shotgun emerged from the bush and opened fire on the vehicle. Thirty-nine-year-old Elvis Garbutt, thirty-year-old Emerita Garbutt, their three-year-old son Elvis Garbutt Jr., and their dog were all killed on the spot. Despite being injured in the face and hand, Elvis’ eleven-year-old daughter managed to escape and ran to her aunt’s house for help. Elvis’ mother, Enid Garbutt, revealed that the gunman was allegedly her son’s own cousin, Curtis Molina. Another relative reported seeing Curtis walking down the street with a shotgun.
Enid Garbutt, Mother of Deceased
“ In the meanwhile we talk about it, I hear ah screaming. And we start to bawl, and I say unu come because ney kill me daughter over deh, ney rob mi daughter ova deh. They rob me daughter over there. We hear the bawling. So when we run, come up by the point deh, they bawl, I see the lee gyal. Wa lee bwai have the lee gyal inna ih lap, and he face da lone blood. She say auntie, she say, please help me. She say, Curtis, she say, shot mi ma, mi bredda, and mi pa.”
The eleven-year-old daughter was quickly taken by boat to Independence Village for treatment. She had lost two fingers and suffered a bullet wound to her face, while her eight-year-old brother miraculously escaped uninjured. The family believes that the motive behind Molina’s horrific act was the three thousand dollars Elvis had saved to buy a small boat.
“From the time they tell me that he come pan the road with gun, I done got a feeling that da my son he come after because my son had a lee money on him to go buy a skiff tomorrow, and he know about it.”
Fearing for the worse, Elvis’ siblings and mother had tried to alert him to the possible threat, but it was already too late. Three members of the family were gone.
“Now Avington, my son tell me like this, he say, ma, he not think that the bwai would a do ah nothing because ney da first cousin. So, ney call him back again, ih next brother, Percival call a back and say, bwai get to Elvis he say, and make him know that Curtis de pon the road. No come. Nende time, poor thing, my son done dead.”
The weapon Molina had been spotted with was allegedly stolen from a neighbor’s home. He then told neighbors that he had borrowed it to go hunting.
Enid Garbutt
“The man weh he take the gun neva deh home, he mi deh da Independence. So one of my sister-in-law, say when he pass with the gun, he have it wrap up in a towel or something. She say ih ask ah you gwen go hunting then? She say, he tell her, yes, I gwen go hunting. Then my sister-in-law, say, what kind of thing, go and go kill then? No know that that woulda be the last ah mi son.”
Police were alerted around 8:45 p.m. and immediately launched a search for Molina, the prime suspect. As his whereabouts remained unknown, his family waited in fear, dreading what he might do next.
“Alla ah we just have to wait for the police. Nobody want to move because then it’s dangerous. So everybody just wait until we call for the police and then the police they come. And then my son come and he hang on by the river and he say he still see the kayak there. He couldn’t get into the vehicle because the police, they make you know, they cannot touch nothing until.”
Molina was captured by police the next day when he was spotted paddling a boat nearby. When questioned, he claimed he had been out hunting but later led officers to the hidden gun. With Christmas just around the corner, the loss of her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild weighs heavily on Enid Garbutt’s heart. Although Molina had several run-ins with the law, the family never expected something this tragic.
“How are you guys all navigating this and trying to cope with something as traumatic as this?”
Enid Garbutt
“Well, I think it very, very hard, I tell you. Very hard. I can’t take it. My son neva figure that this bwai would eva do ah anything because ney da first cousin.”
Britney Gordon for News Five.
