The wife of a Saskatchewan man who was shot and killed on a Honduras island last month has been cleared of any involvement in his death.
Krissy Larsen-Martens has remained on the tiny island of Roatan since her husband, Dallas Martens, was killed in an apparent robbery on Sept. 18.
Rumours had been circulating that local police were considering her a suspect in his murder. However on Saturday, six people were reportedly arrested in connection with Martens' shooting and local police have since said that his wife is not of interest.
"I think they made an official statement yesterday, indicating that I'm not, nor have I ever been a suspect in this case," Larsen-Martens told CTV's Canada AM by phone from Roatan. "I'm free to leave whenever I can."
The couple had been volunteering with a charity organization called The Morgan Jayne Project, working to prevent the spread of HIV on the island. They met a baby named Will there, and recently moved to Roatan permanently to try to adopt him.
The pair had married on the island, according to the charity's website. They have a one-year-old son and were celebrating their first wedding anniversary the night of the shooting.
"We went out to a nice dinner," Larsen-Martens recounted. "On our way home that night we stopped in at a house we had been looking at buying."
Two men then came out from behind the house and grabbed her as she got out of the car, she said. Her husband managed to get in between her and the robbers. She ran back to the car but one of the men dragged her out of the vehicle and took her purse. The other man then allegedly shot Martens, she said.
The charity's website said Martens died instantly after suffering three gunshot wounds.
"It's been devastating, heartbreaking, especially being right there, seeing it happen," Larsen-Martens said. "My family and I were trying to grieve kind of silently, just in respect to the adoption process and how difficult it is now going to be. They don't adopt to single people in Honduras, or at least they haven't in the past."
In the wake of Martens' death, the charity set up a fund to collect reward money for information leading to the arrest of suspects in the case. Family and friends also held a fundraiser for Larsen-Martens and the couple's young son in Saskatoon last weekend.
"Many people consider (Roatan) a dangerous place to live but the reality is that most murders here involve drug dealers or personal disputes," reads a statement on the charity's website by Valerie Nelson, who runs a clinic on the island associated with the volunteer project.
"They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time," Nelson wrote. "Dallas was one of the sweetest, kindest men I knew."
