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Bodies, bodies everywhere!

HeadlineBodies, bodies everywhere!

Headless, dismembered body unearthed in OW well

The female corpse’s head was found outside the well; the body parts were found about 200 feet from where the body of Ramon Cervantes, Sr. was recently discovered

The alleged mastermind of both killings, a deportee, is on the run with a female friend

As Orange Walkeños grapple with the shocking death of one of their past mayors and well-liked personality, Ramon Cervantes, Sr., 71, who was mercilessly slain and subsequently dumped in a shallow grave near the Honey Camp lagoon sometime last week, another buried corpse – this time, that of a woman – was uncovered just before midday today in the same vicinity where Cervantes’ body was found.

This morning, as the terrible news shook the grieving town once more, Amandala headed back out to Orange Walk, where the remains of Sonia Maribel Abac, 46, a resident of Orange Walk Town who was reported missing since April 23 of this year, were removed from an enclosed well situated on a farm adjacent to where the elderly cañero had been deposited after being savagely killed by his abductors.

A group of media personnel patiently watched and waited from a safe distance as forensic technicians and armed police guards, equipped with a small excavator, hoisted the vestiges of the missing woman out of the well. Her body had been separated into parts, and her head was missing.

Later, when we spoke to the Head of the National Crimes Investigation Branch (NCIB), Assistant Commissioner of Police, Russell Blackett, he described the condition in which the woman’s body parts were found, and told us that interestingly, it was the same suspects currently in police custody who had disclosed the location of Cervantes’ makeshift gravesite, who also provided details regarding where Abac’s corpse had been disposed of.

Blackett said, “The body was badly decomposed, mostly the torso. Obviously, she was hit with some blunt object [because] her right jaw was broken, and after that she was [apparently] thrown in a well. We were doing an intensive investigation – the investigation revealed a lot of information. We have a lot more to follow, and the same suspects that took us to Mr. Cervantes’ body, were the same ones who took us to this farm where Miss Abac was thrown in the well, [which is] about 16 feet deep, and buried.”

While he would not disclose the details of what led to Abac’s death, Blackett assured the media that police have a “clear view” of exactly what happened. He would not state, however, whether there is any indication that there might be more bodies buried that could point to further nefarious activity committed by what has emerged to be a seemingly twisted ring of abduction and brutal homicide by ruthless criminal minds operating in Orange Walk Town.

ACP Blackett also refrained from confirming reports that Abac, who was both a domestic worker and a masseuse, was last seen at the home of Manuel Castillo, 37, a deportee who police believe is the architect of the plot to kidnap and kill both Abac and Ramon Cervantes, Sr., whose shallow grave was located roughly 200 feet from where Abac was buried.

What Blackett did say was that the modus operandi is similar in both cases, and that the particular location was probably chosen because the farmlands in that area are open lands which are easily accessible, although they are privately owned.

The Assistant ComPol told us that Castillo – who is also known as “Pelon”, “Chalo” or “Manny” – is presently wanted for questioning by the authorities, but he is believed to have absconded to either Mexico or Guatemala with a female companion, identified as Avicela Duran, who is also from Orange Walk Town.

Meanwhile, Abac’s family – who are equally convinced that Castillo was involved in the murder of their loved one after she was reportedly hired to perform a massage on Castillo’s common-law wife (police did not confirm if this person is Duran) the same day she vanished – laid her to rest late today at the Piemont Cemetery in Orange Walk Town after they managed to identify her remains from her personal belongings which were buried with her, such as her purse, her shoes, and her cell phone, which was still tucked in the same clothing that she was wearing the last time she was seen alive.

Yesterday evening, after the news broke that another body was found in the same remote area of the northern town, Abac’s husband, Alejandro Perez, said that he feared that it would have been his missing common-law wife.

“On April 23 at 4:30 p.m., she took a taxi and went with a lady, and since then I haven’t heard from her. I fear the worst because I don’t know anything. I haven’t heard from her. I searched and haven’t found her”, he said frantically.

Sadly, the family’s worst nightmare came to pass around 11:30 a.m. today when the team of police officers came across the majority of her bones, which, by then, had enmeshed with white mud that encircled the well.

Abac’s sister-in-law, who had the unnerving duty of identifying Abac’s decaying remains, explained the gruesome state in which she saw the body.

“They only found from shoulder to knee with a bit of meat. Her feet, her hands, [and] her head were separate [in the well]. They found the rest [of the body] first, but then the head was missing, so they had to dig [more to find it]. They had to dig through sand and water [beside the well] and until they [eventually] found it [the head], [then] they took it out and put it on top of a zinc. They put the hair too, because the hair was separate – the hair was long and everything. I saw the body and it was very sad to see something like that. The doctor said that her skull was broken, her mandible was [also] broken, and they found her purse. They found her Digicell phone, her shoes, her clothes, the same clothes she had on when she disappeared; it was there too”, she explained, adding that Abac’s head was found about five feet from the well, where the rest of her body parts had been buried.

Amandala understands that Sonia Maribel Abac is survived by two children. Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Manuel Castillo is asked to contact the nearest police station.

The “bodies” we speak of, besides the body of Sonia Abac, are those of Ramon Cervantes, Sr., who was found on Saturday night, July 5, partially decomposed, buried in a shallow grave in th Honey Camp lagoon area in the Orange Walk District; Leon Burgess, 25, of Cybil Reyes Street in the Holy Emmanuel Street Extension in the Gungulung area of Lake Independence, who was killed at about 10:20 on Monday night in his one-room house in his mother-in-law’s yard while he lay on his bed next to his girlfriend, watching television; David Copius, 37, of a Jane Usher Boulevard address, whose decomposing and disemboweled body was retrieved at about 2:30 yesterday afternoon, Wednesday, from a lake in the sewerage reserve, known as the Dykes, which is owned by Belize Water and Services Ltd. (BWSL) and located in the Fabers Road Extension area; and lastly, Dwayne Hilton Jones, 35, also known as “Diesel,” who was shot and killed last night, Wednesday, at about 6:30 at corner #4383 Baldwin and Custard Apple Streets, in the Fabers Road area.

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