ARMENIA, Cayo District, Mon. Apr. 1, 2019– A volunteer soldier of the Belize Defence Force, Hermelindo Ical , 30, also a farmer of Armenia, was found at about 6:30 this morning lying on the roadside in some bushes not far from his house. He had been chopped in the head and body. His body was then taken to the morgue at the Western Regional Hospital.

Ical was found by a man who was walking on the road in the area and called police.

ACP Joseph Myvette said that Ical had been drinking with two men in the village at about 9:00 last night. It is not yet known what led to the murder, but robbery was not the motive, because his phone and wallet were found with him, said police.

Myvette said that two men have been detained for questioning.

Ical’s uncle, who owned the bar in the village where Ical had been socializing, said that at about 8:30 p.m., the men with whom Ical had been drinking left, and he was then drinking alone.

Ical told him that he was going to see somebody and walked out of the club and went down the road. He later returned at about 9:30, but the club was already closed, and the uncle did not permit Ical to enter.

Ical then asked his uncle to take him home, but he did not, and he saw Ical walking down the road, and that was the last time he was seen alive.

The devastated uncle said that Ical told him that he liked to fight. His uncle told him not to fight and to take care of himself and take care of his job. Police are investigating the murder.