‘Prayed for this:’ Honduras police make arrest in Saskatchewan man’s death

MARTENSVILLE, Sask. – Verna Martens has amassed a thick file folder of notes and documents and hounded government officials in Canada and Honduras with letters and phone calls since her son was shot and killed in 2009.

A few days ago, she got good news.

A consular official told her that police in the Central American country had a suspect in custody.

“We had prayed for this — for truth and justice,” Martens said Tuesday from her home in Martensville, just outside Saskatoon.

“This is the break we need.”

Dallas Martens, 31, was gunned down on Sept. 18, 2009, on the island of Roatan.

He and his wife, Krissy, had vacationed there the Christmas before and, while volunteering with a charity group, met a little boy they wanted to adopt.

“Dallas was in love with that kid,” said his mother, who added that her son left his job as a salesman and his wife quit her job at a bank. They moved to Roatan to work as teachers and arrange for theadoption. They planned to return to their home in Martensville in a year.

They were out celebrating their first-year wedding anniversary when the shooting happened during what appeared to be a robbery.

Verna Martens said six men were arrested shortly afterwards, but they were released due to a lack of evidence.

As the years passed, she was told the death was considered a cold case, so she was surprised when she received news of the recent arrest.

She said she was told that the accused, Charles Felix Sanders Webster, is facing charges of plotting a murder, being an accessory to a murder and withholding information from police.

She doesn’t know if police are also looking at other suspects.

A spokesperson with Global Affairs Canada could not be reached for comment.