Jose Manuel Caal, 35, a construction worker of Corozal Town and father of four children, was found dead in the Mount Calvary Cemetery in Corozal Town around 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 18. He was lying face down on the ground in a drain between two tombs, with his hands behind his back, his head smashed in and bruises on his body.
Police who came to the area took the body to the Corozal Town Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Caal was last seen alive around 11:30 Saturday night, March 17, socializing and drinking in a bar in Corozal Town with his friends.
Corozal police have ruled the case as murder, and are now seeking one of his friends, identified asEdgar MarvinCastellanos, 35, of Succotz Village in the Cayo District, who is of interest to them, and who can assist them, they believe, in their investigation into the brutal death of Caal.
Marvin Peck, Caal’s brother, who went to the scene, told the media that his brother was beaten to death with a rock and a stick. His head had been pummeled with a rock, which was found bloodied near the body; his hands were behind his back as if he had been held down, and there was also a stab wound in his left cheek. Peck believes that his brother was held face down and the back of his head beaten repeatedly with the rock, because the back of his head was smashed. The rock was found beside the body.
Peck said that his brother had been paid that Saturday evening and had invited his friend, who had recently begun to work with the construction company, for some drinks, and they were socializing in a bar in the town, the Reina Del Norte Bar.
Peck told the media that during the drinking spree, the friend who had just begun working asked Caal for a loan of $60. Caal agreed to lend him the money, but demanded that the money be repaid the following day, Sunday, because the money was for his wife.
Witnesses said that Caal and the friend left the Reina Del Norte Bar together around 11:30 p.m. that Saturday, March 17, and that was the last time he was seen alive.
Peck said that he received a call around dawn the following day, Sunday, informing him that his brother had killed himself. The police were alerted and they went to the area, where they found him around 6:30 that Sunday morning, approximately seven hours after he was last seen socializing at the bar.
Peck said he wants justice and calls on the police to find his brother’s killer and punish him to the fullest extent of the law. His brother was friendly, he said, and was always helping people and did not deserve so gruesome a death.
Melissa Caal, wife of the deceased, told Amandalathat she became alarmed and aggravated after she missed work at the Golden Casino at the Free Zone, that Saturday night, March 17, after staying up throughout the night waiting for him to come home, but he never came.
She was alarmed, more so, because her husband never stayed out later than 9: 00 on Saturday night when he went out for a drink, and that he was responsible. He would be in the house usually by 8:00 p.m. to care for their four children, while she was at work.
Melissa said that on that Saturday evening around 6:00, she had called him and told him to come home because she was getting ready to go to work. He had replied that he was coming, and that he was around the corner, but he never came.
Around 11:00 p.m., she became alarmed when she called him and he replied that he was with a friend and that he would soon be home. She said she had a few stern words to say to him because she needed to go to work.
When Melissa later called him again, he did not answer his phone. She eventually went to look for him, but he was nowhere to be found, and she returned home. She stayed up all night waiting for him, but he never came.
Around 8:30 that Sunday morning, police called and asked her to go to the morgue to identify a man found in the cemetery who could be her husband, but she refused, because no one would be at home to care for the children, and it was difficult for her. Her brother-in-law went to the morgue and confirmed that it was her husband, his brother, Jose Manuel Caal.
Caal is survived by his wife, Melissa, and their four children. Funeral services were conducted in Corozal Town on Wednesday, March 21, after which he was interred at the Corozal Town Cemetery.