At present, an extensive search is underway between the villages of Hattieville and Freetown Sibun in the rural Belize District as co-workers and authorities are trying to find the current acting Hattieville chairman, Kevin Carcamo, 43, a seismic surveyor who left his Hattieville home yesterday morning for his workplace, Discoverseis, where he embarked on a routine trek to conduct seismic surveys along with six other employees in a vast area covered with bush and swamp on the outskirts of Hattieville.

Carcamo’s family became worried about his whereabouts late yesterday evening when he did not return home after work, after which his common-law wife, Shawn Banner, made a missing person’s report to the Hattieville police, who, along with Carcamo’s colleagues, immediately began a search that lasted until the wee hours of this morning, Monday.

So far, the search has proved futile, and today, Amandala spoke with Rural Executive Officer, ASP Chris Noble, who told us about the police’s efforts in tracing Carcamo since receiving the report late last night.

He said, “The report came to us between late last night and early this morning, but since then, several things have been done to attempt to locate him. We’re hoping that the gentleman is located alive and in good health – he works for a company in that area and his work requires going into the bush. We believe that there may not be cellular service in that area, so we have sent personnel into the area who are working with the Belize Defence Force (BDF), the K-9 Unit and ourselves, along with villagers and the company he works with.”

Noble explained that at this time, police have little information regarding the incident since receiving the news, but said that they are working based on the information which was presented by people who live in the area, and from the workers who were along with Carcamo when he went missing.

Amandala spoke with a relative of Carcamo, who told us about the family’s reaction upon learning of Carcamo’s disappearance.

She said, “Yesterday, me and my husband were calling him, but we were not able to contact him, so I told my husband to call my sister [Carcamo’s common-law wife].

When we called her, she said that he hadn’t reached home from work as yet. Then, about 8:00 p.m., she called us and told us that Kevin was left at work, so we came here [to Hattieville] in our vehicle from Lemonal, and she told us what happened.

“She said that a man who works with Kevin came to look for him, and she told him that Kevin had not come home yet, and so the man asked how Kevin had not come in yet when all the other workers had already come in [out of the bushes].

“That’s when we knew something was wrong, and so she looked in a book that he had with some phone numbers, and she called his boss and told him that Kevin was left by the lagoon, and so they called his brother and he [the brother] went along with his boss to look. They came in like 3:00 a.m. this morning, and they didn’t find any sign of him.”

The relative mentioned that Carcamo’s common-law wife is extremely worried, and wants to know why he was left behind by the group of workers.

“If you are in a group, why would you leave that one person; if there is supposed to be a supervisor that is in charge of the group, and that supervisor knows that everybody has to sign out of work, so we don’t know what happened to Kevin because he did not get on the boat to return after the trek,” she said, adding that, “they say that maybe he went into the bushes to urine and he lost contact with his group, but that is all we could say. We don’t know if they hurt him because he doesn’t have any enemies at his job; we know the area has a lot of bushes and swamp.”

Carcamo’s vehicle was left by his workplace, and since last night, employees of the company and his relatives and some villagers have been frantically looking for him.

This morning the police got involved after the report was made, and we understand that two helicopters are being used in the search, but they haven’t found anything so far.

“The place is very big, but it has crocodiles, snakes and even jaguars, so they don’t know why he decided to separate himself from the group he was with. We don’t know what could have happened to him. His phone was off from yesterday at 10:00 a.m. because Hattieville had a blackout and he couldn’t charge it,” his relative related.

She also said that Carcamo mentioned that he was feeling tired yesterday morning and did not want to go to work, but he still went.

His common-law wife, on the other hand, believes that she should have been told about Carcamo’s disappearance from the time he did not return with his group late yesterday afternoon.

For now, the family is praying for the best, and told us that Carcamo is a good-natured person and a popular village chairman who has been working with the seismic exploration company for several months.

We also attempted to find out how Carcamo might have gotten separated from the group from the Discoverseis, the company with which he works; however, members of the company refrained from commenting on the matter when we visited their offices this afternoon.

(Ed. NOTE: Unconfirmed reports to us very late tonight are that Carcamo was found in a cave and was being transported to an unnamed hospital for treatment. The Police Press Officer, however, could not confirm the information, and the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital told us tonight that they had no one by that name at the hospital.)