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Tonight we can tell you that while police are still referring to the body as a John Doe, but the Cobo-Chi family is saying it's their son and brother, 18 year old Micheal Cobo who has been missing since Friday. Cherisse Halsall spoke to his mother:

This was the scene this morning as Police truck after police truck drove into the Belize City port. They were rushing to retrieve the decomposed body of a male person wrapped in a blanket and floating in the sea about 50ft off the port authority pier.

The Belize Coast Guard assisted in retrieving the body, and when it emerged it was observed that it was tattooed with the image of a rose and the name Miley on the left hand.

At that very moment Margarita Chi was at a police station in San Pedro formally reporting that her son 18 year old Micheal Cobo had been missing since Friday. She never finished that report because while there she received a devastating text message from another son. This afternoon Chi traveled to Belize City to verify that the body found floating this morning belonged to her son Micheal. We spoke to her this evening and she told us that she her recognition of this morning's much publicized images was immediate.

Margarita Chi, Mother of Micheal Cobo
"Well I was making my report when my son sent me a text and he told me that they found a body. He called me and sent me a picture and from the moment I saw the picture I knew that it was my son. Why? Because he has some hands that I love and his hands were tied behind his back with that little finger up and the moment I saw it, I told them that is my son. The person in charge of the station where I was giving my report told me to wait that I couldn't go telling just by that and I told him that is my son. I raised him I know his body and even if I can't identify his face I know that he's my son. So he told me that I had to come to Belize to check. I just moved from the spot where they took me to identify my son's body."

Cobo was last seen on Friday in the Yabra area of Belize City. The family says that he was to return to San Pedro by Saturday that was when they knew something was amiss.

Today they've been hit with the shocking discovery of Micheal's decomposed body floating in the water, wrapped in a blanket with his hands bound, and his body apparently anchored with concrete blocks. A turn of events that leaves them ill prepared to deal with the financial burden of a sudden death.

Margarita Chi, Mother of Micheal Cobo
"The problem is that my son's body, he has been missing since Friday, and so far I don't know when he died or when he was killed. I just went and verified that It was him right. So they are asking for 2,600 dollars to clean up the body and everything put him in the box and everything because from there we have to take him straight to be buried. Then we need a transport from boat where they will charge us $400.00 to take him to San Pedro to today and this something that wasn't planned and we don't have those finances right now so if you could help us with any little thing we'd really appreciate it."

"Micheal is a boy who's really loving and all of San Pedro knows that he is a good child. So if you're hearing this friends and everything please come up and help."

At a post mortem this evening, the family confirmed that it is Michael Cobo.