麻豆社

When Earl and Dean Williams were children, they discovered that the people raising them in the Belizean town of San Ignacio were not their parents, but their great aunt and uncle. It would take several more years for Earl and Dean to uncover what had happened to their biological mother, Nora Parham.

Their cousin had access to police archives, and what he found was difficult to hear: Nora had been found guilty of murdering her partner, a police constable called Ketchell Trapp, by setting him on fire. She became the only woman in Belize's history to be executed.

Following her execution, her eight sons were raised by different relatives around the country and one was even sent to the United States. Contact among the brothers was sparse and reunions were rare.

Dean and Earl both found it hard to accept their mother was capable of such an act. And, over time, Dean came across information that did seem to exonerate her. Former neighbours said Ketchell Trapp had been physically abusive to Nora. Then a friend and neighbour called Agripina Espejo said she had been present at the hospital when Ketchell Trapp gave his dying statement to police. According to Espejo, he said he had accidentally set himself on fire and that his injuries were not Nora's fault.

In 2022, nearly 60 years after Nora was hanged, Belize's Minister of Human Development, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, brought the case to the House of Representatives. The motion to posthumously pardon Nora passed, with five of her sons watching tearfully from the gallery. In a final act of dignification, Nora's previously unmarked grave was given a headstone.

Presented and produced by Saskia Collette

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(Photo: A portrait photo of Nora Parham. She is wearing a smart, light coloured blouse with drop earrings. Her hair is parted on the side and pulled back away from her face. Credit: Courtesy of Earl Williams)