But, police may be able to avoid any culpability on this one. While it will go down in the statistics as a murder in Belize on January first, a post mortem shows that it happened days before, and, based on the individual's dress and other factors, police suspect it may have happened in Guatemala some days ago. Acting Compol Williams told us more:..
DCP Chester Williams, Ag. COMPOL
"Police were called to the Belize River in the area of Blackman Eddy Village, where they retrieved from the river the lifeless body of a male Hispanic person who has several tattoos all over the body. The person's hands were bound to the back. He was taken to the medical school as the body was in a preliminary state of decomposition and a postmortem examination conducted yesterday revealed that he died from manual strangulation. And so that is a case of murder that we are now investigating; this individual is still listed as John Doe."
Reporter:
"I am told that there may be some suspicion that it may have been something that happened in Guatemala and that the person may not a Belizean. Is there any indication of this?"
DCP Chester Williams:
"We don't have anything to suggest, but we know the river runs from a distance, we do know from how far the body came. We don't even know who he is and as I said, the body was already starting to decompose. Which would suggest that he was in the river for at least over a day. A body can travel quite a distance in a day in a river that runs as strong as the Belize River, so possibilities could be but we cannot confirm that."
Reporter:
"And there are no missing person reports."
DCP Chester Williams:
"Based on what I am told that the body has been in the water for three to four days. And we have no missing person in Belize that matches that description, so that could be a possibility. Unfortunately it drifted into our area and it is not for us."
At newstime, the body was still a John Doe.
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