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It's a staggering body count - and I've been following up with police and the families all day. Here's the story:

Courtney Weatherborne reporting
In this amateur video captured yesterday evening, police are seen on the fisherman's pier on Marine Parade bringing in the first body from Swallow Caye, 3 miles off Belize City.

That body was later identified as city resident Travis Cooke. Then this morning around 6:30 another body turned up, this time it washed ashore off the coast of Belize City on Reggae Street in the Port Loyola area.

That's the body of Mahogany Street resident Ernest Wills. The third body, city resident Winston Santos was also found this morning around 7:30 back at Swallow Caye.

All 3 men were shot and killed. They were part of a group of about 5 fishermen who left the city on Tuesday to set traps for lobster out at sea. Cooke's girlfriend said they had just come back from another trip on Sunday and that is when Cooke told her that he had seen some people circling the area but none of them thought much of it and then they left out again on Tuesday.

Cooke's girlfriend said she spoke to Cooke on Tuesday night around 11:00 before his phone battery died and that was the last time she heard from him. They were to return yesterday, unfortunately it's their dead bodies that turned up. Now the families of these men are still trying to grapple with their murders and hunt for answers as to why they were executed at sea. Today police say they are still working on putting together all the elements in this very troubling triple murder case.

ASP Alejandro Cowo, OC CIB
"The information that we have received is that it was a group of fishermen that had left from Belize City en route to one of the cayes, which is about ten miles from Belize City where they are fishing for lobster. And I believe that they departed on Tuesday morning and the last time it was heard from them was Wednesday at about six in the morning."

Reporter
"How many persons were in that initial group?"

ASP Alejandro Cowo
"This is something that we are trying to establish at this moment. Those are the only three bodies that we have found so far. We know that, according to interviews conducted with other family members, we understands that there is a possibility of two more persons being with them, but up to now the family members of those 2 persons have not approached the police and made any report as to anybody missing. It is not something common to find 3 bodies in a period of 22 hours, especially out at sea with different injuries to their bodies especially gunshot and it is something that we are closely communicating with the family to try to establish a motive. All that we have gathered so far is that they were working out there at a caye doing their fishing lobster and they were expected to return today or tomorrow morning to Belize City."

Reporter
"Is there anything to suggest that maybe the incident maybe drug related?"

ASP Alejandro Cowo
"It is something that we cannot discard and it is possibility that we are looking at also, likewise."

The Police and the Coast guard are working closely together and coast guard officers are out at sea searching for more clues and for the other two persons believed to have gone on the trip. Police also located a vessel with fishing equipment near the Caye but no family member can confirm if that was the boat the men were in. Investigators also canvassed the Caye and they are not sure if the men were murdered there.

Wills and Cooke were shot to the head, Santos to the back.

And while the search continues for those two other men - we note that in January of this year, fisherman Evan Neal and two of his employees were also targeted in that area - specifically on Mapp Caye. In that case, Neal and another man have not been found while another man was found dead on the island. Neal's family tells us that this crew of five was also using Mapp Caye - and one of them had previously worked for Evan Neal previously.