A vigil will be held Friday night for Natalie Belmonte, whose body was found earlier this week near her Pembroke Pines home.
Belmonte’s adopted son Gerard Lopes was charged with her murder and authorities have said they believe he was caught on a neighbor’s surveillance camera getting rid of her body the night she disappeared.
The vigil is planned for 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Chapel Trail Elementary school, 19595 Taft. St., in Pembroke Pines.
It is being organized by a Facebook page called “Bring Candles to Support Natalie Belmonte.” The group said on their page that they will be showing the Belmonte family their support.
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Meanwhile, Gerard Lopes, 21, was in a Broward courtroom Thursday, where he was ordered held without bond in the 43-year-old’s murder.
According to the arrest affidavit, Lopes called police around 7 p.m. Sunday to report that Belmonte was missing. He told police that the two had returned from a party around 2:30 a.m., that he was drunk and had slept in until 11 a.m., when he realized she wasn't home, the affidavit said.
Lopes also allegedly told officers that he never left the house throughout the night, but when police reviewed the security footage, they said it showed something else entirely.
It allegedly shows someone matching Lopes’ description leaving the house, repositioning the car and backing it up on an angle toward the front door, authorities said. Then the person loads up a large object _ consistent with the size of an adult _ to the car, and puts it in the trunk and eventually drives away, authorities said.
Police spent three days searching for Belmonte near her home in the 19300 block of Northwest 5th Street. Her body was found in a wooded area with blunt force trauma to the head, authorities said.
Authorities have not discussed any possible motive. Lopes' attorney's name wasn't immediately known.
