57 murdered already for 2009; at this time in 2008, the tally was 66
Reliable reports to Amandala as we go to press tonight are that police have detained three suspects in the murder of taxi operator James “Jimmy” Young, 82, whose body was discovered over the weekend after he had gone missing for 72 hours.
Our repeated attempts to confirm this so far have been futile, as OIC Belmopan, Superintendent Aaron Guzman’s phone line was busy this evening and the on-duty man at the station said he was not authorized to give information on ongoing investigations.
The body was discovered Friday evening in a forested area on the Pook’s Hill Resort road in Teakettle, Cayo District, some 13 miles in from the Western Highway. It was mostly intact, but already in a state of decomposition and displayed multiple stab wounds to the chest, stomach and neck area. Young’s Geo Prism taxi was previously found in the adjacency zone straddling the Belize-Guatemala border on Thursday, but it was not immediately clear whether the find was made in Belizean or Guatemalan territory (reports suggest it was Guatemala, but the zone is considered no man’s land).
But who would want to savagely murder an elderly taxi operator, who has no history of conflict with anyone?
According to family members, Young, who lived in the Cohune Walk area of Belmopan, was last seen dropping off food for his granddaughter sometime on Tuesday morning, July 28.
Police say that sometime in the course of that day, Young’s attackers (police believe it was more than one man involved) approached him, robbed and killed him and dumped the body in Teakettle.
According to the results of the post-mortem conducted on Saturday, the cause of death was exsanguination from internal bleeding due to multiple stab wounds to the neck and chest area. The body had already started to decompose by the time it was found. The stab wounds were many, probably over a dozen, but because of the decomposed state of the body, the post-mortem could not reveal the exact amount.
Today, Amandala visited the capital to probe deeper into the mystery surrounding Jimmy Young’s death.
Jimmy’s brother, Phillip Young, who also operates from the Market Taxi Stand where Jimmy worked, told us that his brother was an easygoing fellow and was never one to bother anyone. He drove his Prism and when not on the job, kept to himself in the taxi stand’s parking area.
A vendor in the Belmopan market told us that Jimmy would visit her shop first thing every morning for a sandwich and later on, some lime juice. She found him friendly to everyone he met, including her, and she was shocked to hear that he had died at the hands of a vicious group of killers. Many others in the market area that we spoke with echoed the feeling today.
One of Jimmy Young’s sons, Gilbert Young, says he believes his father would not have deliberately put himself in harm’s way, but says he has no ill feelings toward the robbers/killers, preferring to leave all judgment to God.
However, he did not mince words in describing the experience of having to identify his father’s body last Friday, as “painful, horrible, and terrible.”
Officer in charge of Belmopan Crimes Investigation Branch, Sergeant Ismael (Solomon) Westby, told us that there had been one suspect, a young man detained over the weekend in connection with the incident, but he was released.
Some items of jewelry owned by Young were recovered with the body when it was found, but his cell phone was missing and it was not clear, according to Sgt. Westby, if there was any money on Young’s person or in the vehicle, as they could not find any.
Police investigations continue and Sgt. Westby said that several possible suspects were being looked at. Young’s murder is number 57 for the year by Amandala’s count and the eleventh involving a person aged 50 or older, tied for second most murders by age group.