Latest update March 24th, 2025 7:05 AM
Missing Guyanese woman body found; adopted son charged with murder
PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. (WSVN) — Police have charged the adopted son of Guyana-born Realtor, Natalie Belmonte, with first-degree murder after police found what they believe is her body in a marsh near her home.
Just after 4 p.m., yesterday, Pembroke Pines Police could be seen placing 21-year-old Gerard “Gery” Belmonte into handcuffs in front of the home he shared with his 43-year-old adoptive mother. Her death leaves two biological children without their mother.
Police have confirmed he was detained for questioning, around 4:15 in the afternoon. Less than two hours later, they named him as their prime suspect in her murder. The evidence connecting him to Belmonte’s death remains unknown.
Gerard Belmonte
Natalie Belmonte
The medical examiner is now looking to positively identify a body, police believe, belongs to the woman who was reported missing by that son, late Sunday night. Police discovered the body of a white female with traumatic injuries, earlier Wednesday in a wooded area near her home.
Police also spent some time, a few days earlier, searching dumpsters where they reportedly recovered “gruesome” evidence. Police said they also traced evidence found in Belmonte’s Lexus back to her son.
This adopted son has been in trouble with the law before. Back in 2008, he was charged with grand theft for stealing $20,000 worth of jewelry from his mother’s jewelry box. Back then, the mother wanted to prosecute him for the crime. He was 17 and weeks away from his 18th birthday.
For some reason, the juvenile case was dropped but the charges held as an adult case. The public defender’s office reported he was not aware of this adult charge and went on with his life.
Then in 2011, he found out there was a warrant out for his arrest for this alleged crime, and he turned himself in on June 11. On July 13 the son had a bond hearing. His mother was there where she expressed her desire to see the charges dropped and get his bond reduced. His bond was set at $1,000, and he bonded out the next morning, three days before she went missing.
The grand theft case remains pending.
Jery Gilbreath said he knew the elder Belmonte very well, when they worked together at a Home Depot, before she became a Realtor. “It’s an absolute tragedy for the kind of person she was,” he said, near the scene of where police found the body. “She would reach out to the community with donations … she was a dear person.”
Her adopted son is from her homeland of Guyana, and is actually related to her by blood as a cousin. Detectives had said the adopted son was being cooperative but became more quiet and distant in the days after he reported her missing.
Police said the divorced mother of two was last seen Sunday morning, at about 2:30 a.m., when she returned home from a graduation party with her son. According to authorities, the son would not report her missing until later Sunday night.
Police had spent the earlier part of the day searching a wooded area near a canal, located around 196th Avenue and Sheridan Street, in connection to the disappearance of Belmonte. At a press conference just after 12 p.m. yesterday, Pembroke Pines Police Captain Dan Rakofsky stated, “Earlier this morning, Pembroke Pines Police detectives continuing their search for Natalie Belmonte, who has been missing since Sunday morning, found the body of a deceased adult.”
Rakofsky went on to say that the body was that of a woman, and the fact that this discovery happened near her home, in the days soon after her disappearance has lead detectives to suspect that the body belongs to Belmonte.
“We don’t know for sure that this is Ms. Belmonte,” he stated, “but there is a strong possibility that this is.”
Police have not said whether they have found a weapon, but they are now calling the Belmonte case a homicide investigation.
Rakofsky also noted that Belmonte’s car, a 2007 maroon Lexus ES, remains a focal point in the investigation. Police are asking if anyone saw the car being driven in the Pembroke Pines area on Sunday morning between 5:15 a.m. and 6:45 a.m., to contact them. “We just know that that vehicle was seen out at that time, and we really need all the information that’s forthcoming about it,” he said.
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