Weeks after facing a property damage charge in Belize’s Magistrate’s Court and five days of being labeled a missing person, Ashema Chang has publicly addressed the September house fire that left her former partner Eugene Thompson homeless, issuing a firm denial of any involvement in the blaze.
Chang broke her months-long public silence during a late-night social media livestream, opening up about the turmoil that has surrounded her relationship with Thompson and the devastating fire that has upended both of their lives. She told viewers that from the earliest days of her romance with Thompson, everyone close to her – from colleagues to family friends – had repeatedly urged her to end the relationship.
The timeline of events leading up to the fire places the incident the day after a court granted Chang a 15-day protection order against Thompson, which allowed her to stay in his home starting September 14. The next morning, the property was engulfed in flames. In her first public comments on the fire, Chang pushed back hard against any claims of her responsibility, noting that most of her own personal belongings were also stored inside the home and destroyed in the blaze. “It just really hard, and I lose everything. So that house weh he said burn down, most of my stuff in there, so I no know nothing about that,” she shared during the livestream.
After her initial court appearance, Chang was reported missing roughly five days later. But Thompson has pushed back on that narrative, alleging that Chang was never actually missing and had instead continued harassing him in the days after the hearing.
At a September 22 follow-up hearing, Chief Magistrate granted Chang bail after observing that she appeared confused and disoriented in court. The charges against her were not formally read at that time, and the judge ordered her to complete a psychiatric evaluation before the case moves forward. However, local attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley explained that under Belize’s legal process, the responsibility of scheduling and paying for this mandated evaluation falls to the defendant and their family, rather than the state. “If it’s a situation where the magistrate is offering bail, then the situation would then be that it kind of falls on that person and the family to make arrangements to get a psychiatric evaluation, which is not free,” Bradley clarified. As of the latest updates, the evaluation has not yet been scheduled or completed.
For Thompson, the aftermath of the fire has left him in a precarious housing situation. He told reporters he is still struggling to secure permanent new accommodation, and has received no official updates on the status of his destroyed property. “The hope is to return back from the situation, that da weh I di try to think right now because no one no contact me concerning my house again after the last contact,” he said.