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Our news team arrived on the scene just in time to meet Martinez's family who were devastated to find themselves at the end of a very long, desperate search. Cherisse Halsall reports.

It was just after 11:00 this morning when police patrolling on the John Smith road discovered the body of Belize city resident, Allen Martinez floating in a pond.

Martinez had last been seen on Carnival day when a friend says the neighbourhood run man was just like every other Belizean, ready and waiting for Carnival. But, then, he disappeared and never returned home.

And since last week Martinez's family, led by Allen's brother, and indeed the entire neighbourhood, joined the BDF in an exhaustive search for their loved one but with no results. A family friend told us more off camera:

Voice of: Family Friend
"We combed this road two to three days every corner every inch left and right. We would have found him here if he was here."

Cherisse Halsall:
"So you believe that they just brought him here?"

Voice of: Family Friend
"We believe that definitely because. We combed the entire road walking from the end to the beginning and he was not here."

That was until this morning when the family finally got the news that someone had been found and were called out to identify the body.

That identification was done by Allen's Father, Sylbert Martinez. He declined to give a statement and said only that he was leaving his son's death and possible murder in the hands of the lord.

Voice of: Family Friend
"Allen Martinez also known as "Not Nice" was a Belizean artist very friendly. No harm to no one, no harm to no one on he would be on the boulevard every single day. Every single day that is probably the reason why he went missing and did not come home, the whole family, the neighborhood got worried because that was unlikely. He's normally at home every single day no matter what time, not nice comes back home. So, they lost a good person they lost a Belizean artist, an icon."

Cherisse Halsall:
"What was his mood on Carnival day?"

Voice of: Family Friend
"Regular, Not nice. Drink his little bad man, relax on the boulevard right in front of the family yard, that's him. That's his day."

But Martinez is not the first murder victim found off the John Smith road. This road - inaugurated only two years ago - has become something of a dumping ground for victims.

And that started early, even before the then nameless road was finished when 28-year-old Belize City mechanic Jamal Humes's remains were found buried in a shallow grave. Humes had been missing for four months, after disappearing on December 20th of 2017.

And one family who knows the pain that the Martinez's feel today is the family of Egner Guerrero. The mentally ill epileptic's body was also discarded on the John Smith road after he'd been missing for 12 days.

Another year later and the John Smith road was back in the news after missing couple Mark and Leticia Frankel's abandoned car tipped the cops off that they too had been discarded here.

And this year there have been two incidents, the first more violent than clandestine, a cold-blooded murder of a Chinese businessman, Zi Hui He known as "Jacky" who was just out for his morning jog and was targeted by a killer who waylaid him on the road.

And most recently, back in May yet another family was brought to devastating tears when their 20-year-old son Emir Cansino turned up murdered from multiple stab wounds and abandoned on the John Smith road.

And, now, one more - the 7th found dead on this road in just over four years.

Reliable reports to 7 News are that Martinez who was last seen by a female on Sunday the 4th of September was in the company of quote: "people he thought were his friends"

We'll keep following this story and tell you if and when anyone is charged for his murder.