4 teenagers murdered in less than a week. That's the grim synopsis coming out of this weekend after three more teen murders were registered in and around Belmopan.
We start with 19-year-old Adamir Choc of San Martin - who had gone missing on the 10th of September when she left a nightclub and got into a mystery vehicle and wasn't seen again. Four days later, on Saturday, she was found dead - in a grisly state.
Today, Cherisse Halsall spoke to her mother. Here's her story from Belmopan.
Cherisse Halsall reporting
Elvira Choc let out a devastated cry as the body of her 19 year old daughter was identified on Saturday.
By then Adamir, known to her friends and family as "Mia" had been missing for 6 days.
She had gone out partying on the 10th of September but never returned home. This surveillance video shows her getting into a car and was the only clue to her whereabouts.
Then on Saturday morning a body was found discarded near the George Price Highway, not even a 3 minute drive down the Never Delay road. Choc's uncle was called to the scene and quickly called home to inform her mother.
Onlookers soon gathered to watch as the Choc family's desperate search for their daughter ended in tragedy. Earlier Today Adamir Choc's mother told us off camera what it was like walking into every parent's worst nightmare.
Voice of: Elvira Choc, Mother of the deceased
"When I reach there it was kind of shocking because as I approach there I met my father in law and my brother. They were tearing up and that is when it shocked me in my heart and I said it is her because my family is not going to throw tears for nothing. So I was already there when the police reach I was going and that is when they moved me at the back ad said that I couldn't go to see it but I was already there because my brother in law was the first. The person that found the body my brother in law. That is when he went there and he call for me to go and they were the ones that call the police to reach. As I reach, the police reached. So I didnt get to see personally with my own eyes when she was right there lying where they found her. The way they say it was like how it was known - she didnt have o9n any clothes. All she on one arm one of her blouse and that was it."
Choc had spent the week searching and investigating the disappearance of her daughter even taking to social media to desperately reach out to her daughter's peers, the last possible connections she had to Adamir.
Elvira Choc, Mother of the deceased
"I see this friend come sometimes home and sometimes she sleeps here and in the morning she goes home. My daughter goes to drop her home, so I say maybe she is with her, because she was the last closest friend she had. So I went in my daughter's profile and I looked for this girl and then I sent her a message through messenger and I told her hi and I see she responded and then I ask her if she knows about my daughter and that is when she told me that yes she was with her last night, but then she disappeared from her and I asked her how comes, if they were hanging around with other people beside she and her sister and then she told me only 3 of them were hanging together. But then I ask if they were hanging together, with whom did she went with?"
For now the sequence of events that occurred after Mia Choc got into that car remain a tragic mystery.
A large group of Adamir Choc's family and friends gathered for her burial on Sunday - and while she is buried, the mystery and tragedy of her death endures.
A post mortem could not confirm the cause of death due to the advanced state of decomposition.
After the murder - social media commentary tended towards victim blaming - suggesting that it was the teen's fault for getting into that vehicle.
The Special Envoy For Women And Children, Kim Simplis Barrow issued a statement urging against victim blaming. Her statement says, quote, "Ms. Choc is the victim of an atrocious crime for which she nor her family are at fault. In cases such as this one, we must refrain from victim blaming, and instead remember that murder is a reprehensible act that should not be taken lightly." End quote.
The Belmopan based youth group Belmopan Active Youths also issued a statement expressing its dissatisfaction in the lack of strong security measures, as it relates to the operation of night clubs. Additionally Belmopan Active Youths called on their City Council to ensure that proper evaluation be done in the establishment of the Liquor Licence Board and in the issuing and reissuing of liquor licences and extensions of hours of operations of the night clubs in Belmopan and surrounding areas.
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