BELIZE CITY, Wed. Jan. 16, 2019– Last Wednesday, January 9, marked exactly 1 month since 23-year-old Aneshia Young went missing after attending a work staff party on the previous night, and then leaving from Sit ‘N Sip at around 3 a.m. Today, her family, who have been relentlessly searching for her body, is much closer to finding her than ever before.
Yesterday, January 15, leader of the search team, Jose Espat, held a press conference, which was broadcasted live on Facebook, where he discussed all the circumstantial evidence that has been collected so far, leading up to the hair extensions (“weave”) and human skin found in a shallow grave on December 29.
According to Espat, Young’s boyfriend, who is the prime suspect in this case, borrowed a black Nissan Altima car on the morning of December 8. This car was then captured on surveillance cameras at the Bel China gas station and travelling up the Philip Goldson Highway.
The family has scoured the area, including searching at Bermudian Landing, Willows Bank and Burrell Boom. It was while they were searching in Burrell Boom that they got information of a bad smell coming from a swampy area in Maskall, which is where they found the shallow grave.
Espat also said, at the conference, that in the area where the grave was found, they also noticed a lot of hoof prints of a horse. He then said there is only one person who lives in that area that has horses, although he did not mention any names.
Interestingly, Espat revealed that the family had gotten in touch with a phone technician from Apple, since Young owned an Apple iPhone, and that technician was able to access the phone and change the security questions so that no one else would be able to access the phone.
Before locking the phone, though, he noticed some activity on the phone even after Young had gone missing for a couple days.
When the technician locked the phone, there were attempts by the person(s) who currently are in possession of the phone to regain access into the device. These attempts caused the technician to be notified via SMS, which revealed the picture and the name of the person who was trying to get into the phone.
Espat said, the person whose name and picture the SMS revealed is a blood relative of Young’s boyfriend.
Another thing that the technician was able to find out was the location of the phone – which is somewhere in Belmopan. After the person with the phone found out that someone had gained access to the phone, they turned it off. They then turned it on back in an attempt to delete the “Find my Phone” app that is a feature of iPhones.
Espat said that all this information has been given to the police and they are doing what they need to do with it. He also said that the wristband found near the shallow grave in Maskall, which was seemingly from a night club, could also prove to be a valuable piece of evidence if it is taken for DNA testing. The wristband may either have Young’s DNA, her boyfriend’s DNA, or that of a third person that could prove to be a suspect. If the wristband does have Young’s DNA, it would be the evidence needed to prove that her body had been in the shallow grave.
Young’s cousin, Sheree Salgado, who has been the face of the search team, pleaded for whoever knows what happened to her cousin to tell them where the body is, even if they want to do so anonymously. Salgado has accepted that her cousin is dead, and said all they want is closure and to give the body a proper burial.