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But today when the family heard that human remains had been found near mile eight, they knew it had to be his. Jules Vasquez was there and tells us why:..

Jules Vasquez Reporting:
This is the site of the shallow grave where the decomposed remains were found. The umbrella and the caution tape are what police left there, but this morning, a resident of Western Pines was going to fish in one of the many ponds back here when his dog caught a sent and went sniffing around the area - and came upon the skeletal remains of a human hand sticking out from the shallow grave. Police got the call around 9:00 - and they came to this location, which is on a dusty road off the western highway across from the mile 8 community in the general area of Western Pines. It is a deserted road but it is being developed as the future site of the Link Road or airport road, which will connect the George Price and Phillip Goldson Highways. And while police blanketed the area, today vultures started circling once the grave was opened. The police had to wear face masks as the forensic team disinterred the body that had been there for an estimated three months. That timeline drew the family of missing man Jamal Humes. He disappeared around Christmas, and at noon his uncle Shawn Nicholas was the first civilian on the scene, followed by Jamal's aunt, who is a police superintendent. They fearlessly approached the scene; Nicholas told us why they are eager for closure.

Shawn Nicholas- Jamal Humes' Uncle
"Brother, we really can't give up on Jamal, we can't give up on our loved one; as I am speaking here it brings tears to my eyes. Jamal is basically my son, I raised him from when he was months old, he is not only my nephew. I will never stop searching even if it takes me 100 years I won't stop searching."

Jules Vasquez - Reporter
"Now, this is hard to say, but in a sense, you want to find something here, you wish, in a sense, that it is him so you all can have closure."

Shawn Nicholas
"Yes, it will hurt and we will stand that pain for now but it is a nagging pain for us to go through every day. You can see his mom's posts in which she tags his name every day. We send a post every day begging the Belizean publicly that if you hurt our nephew, if you hurt our loved one it doesn't matter just please give us the body so we can have closure. We need closure."

Closure on a road that is well known to Nicholas from the search for his nephew.

Shawn Nicholas
"I decided to take a run out here because we are concentrating on this area. Many of our tips said that Jamal is in this area. When we ended the search at the Lewis farm, we did come down this road but we were unable to come all this way down because of the water."

Jules Vasquez
"That was in January?"

Shawn Nicholas
"Yes, sometime in January. We came all the way up, about 300 feet from here."

When the forensic team exhumed the body - they found skeletal remains in a black shirt, underwear, and jeans, and nearby was a PUSH brand cellphone - just like the one Jamal used- a wallet and an expended shell. Only a post-mortem and a full search of his clothing would confirm his identity with a ring and chain he wore, plus an ID and his cell phone number scribbled inside. All evidence bringing the family closure and the hard truth that their loved one was murdered.

Jules Vasquez - Reporter
"But you are also facing the fact that it is confirmation that he was murdered and buried in a shallow grave."

Shawn Nicholas
"Yes basically, Jules. But like I said, we are a peace-loving family; we don't draw from Moses Law. We can get over this, it was my sister's only son but we'll get over it."

The cause of death has been confirmed as two gunshots to the head.

Because of the advanced state of decomposition, the family had to bury him immediately. And that had to happen without his mother here; she recently travelled to the US for her birthday last week.