Tucked away from the tourist hoi polloi with its five-star amenities and private white sand beach, the Alaia Belize resort bills itself as the 'perfect getaway'.
But the outside world certainly intruded with a vengeance on Tuesday.
For if its high-paying guests didn't know that the gleaming new boutique hotel was at the centre of a bizarre mystery, in which one of its creators allegedly shot dead a local police chief by accident on a jetty 100 yards away, they certainly do now.
Accompanied by members of her family, Jasmine Hartin strode into the immaculate compound on Tuesday noisily demanding to be reunited with her two young children, and furiously confronting their father, Andrew Ashcroft, son of the Tory peer Lord Ashcroft.
The 32-year-old Canadian expat socialite has been released on bail on a manslaughter-by-negligence charge over the killing of police superintendent Henry Jemmott in the island town of San Pedro.
She claims she has been cut off from her children, her home, her money and her possessions following the scandal.
Accompanied by members of her family, Jasmine Hartin strode into the immaculate Alaia Belize resort noisily demanding to be reunited with her two young children, and furiously confronting their father, Andrew Ashcroft (pictured above), son of the Tory peer Lord Ashcroft
In extraordinary and almost farcical scenes that will certainly not be finding their way into the hotel's glossy publicity material, but which the Hartin family released on social media, Ms Hartin — technically the Alaia's director of 'lifestyle and experience' — filmed herself chasing Mr Ashcroft through the hotel, arguing with security guards and complaining loudly that he will 'rot in hell' for his treatment of her.
The footage, posted by her family on Facebook and Twitter, dramatically ended two weeks of quiet after Ms Hartin was released on $15,000 (£10,700) bail and ordered to report daily to a police station on the other side of the small Central American country and former British colony.
Local media say she has been living in a nearby compound owned by the Ashcroft family.
She has told police she accidentally shot Mr Jemmott, a native Belizean and hulking, 42-year-old friend of the couple, with his own handgun in the early hours of May 28 at the end of a jetty close to where they live.
Sources told the Daily Mail yesterday that Mr Ashcroft and Ms Hartin actually separated before the policeman's shocking death, but stayed together to keep up appearances.
Ms Hartin has been widely portrayed by local people as a friendly, fun-loving party girl who enjoyed regular late nights out on the town in the laid-back resort.
However, she was very much the devoted mother on the warpath on Tuesday, as she demanded to see their four-year-old twins, Charlie and Elle.
'I'm walking up right now to see my kids,' she explained in one video — apparently captured on her phone — as she passed through the hotel grounds.
In extraordinary and almost farcical scenes that will certainly not be finding their way into the hotel's glossy publicity material, but which the Hartin family released on social media, Ms Hartin — technically the Alaia's director of 'lifestyle and experience' — filmed herself chasing Mr Ashcroft through the hotel, arguing with security guards and complaining loudly that he will 'rot in hell' for his treatment of her
The 32-year-old Canadian expat socialite has been released on bail on a manslaughter-by-negligence charge over the killing of police superintendent Henry Jemmott in the island town of San Pedro
'And there's Andrew,' she added as a man in a red shirt, followed by two security guards, rushed into the Alaia's beach restaurant — where in better days staff said she would take their children for lunch each day.
'Andrew's running so I can't see my children,' Ms Hartin explained to her phone. The security guards then approached her, blocking her way.
'Security is literally stopping me from seeing my children right now,' she said, raising her voice as she made clear she wouldn't be making a scene by trying to get past them.
'I won't do that to my kids. That's how much I love them, I don't want my children to see that.'
As her frustration grew, she added: 'He's gonna rot in hell for this. Like I'm not going through enough?'
Her mother Candice and two siblings had reportedly flown down from the family home in Ontario to support her.
One of them can be heard on the video interjecting angrily on her behalf as she told the guards: 'He lied to my family in Canada . . . he's a f***ing liar.'
In another video, Ms Hartin — while assuring her companions that, 'Nothing says I can't be in here, so I'm here' — led them through the hotel's main dining room and right up to Mr Ashcroft, taking him by surprise in the kitchen.
'Stop, stop,' he told her as he put a hand up to her phone, before turning on his heel and making a hasty retreat, ignoring her questions as she followed.
