His devastated mother wants questions answered
BELIZE CITY, Mon. Aug. 26, 2019– The body of Michael Hyde, 32, an electrician of Zacaranda Street, Belize City (not to be confused with the Michael Hyde of KREMANDALA), was found floating in a lagoon in the Turneffe Atoll area of the Belize District on Thursday evening. The body was in a state of decomposition.
He was found by the owner of CoCo Caye, Fabian Johnson, and some men who were searching for him after they were informed by the watchman on CoCo Caye Thursday evening that Hyde had been missing since Tuesday morning, August 20.
The watchman said that he had looked for him, up to about 10:00 that Tuesday night, but did not find him.
The body was recovered at about 5:30 Friday morning by the Coast Guard. Police and Hyde’s sister travelled to Turneffe, and his sister identified the body. His remains were then brought to Belize City by the Coast Guard, where a mandatory autopsy was carried out this morning.
At the conclusion of the autopsy, the doctor who conducted the exam told the family that drowning was the cause of Hyde’s death, because water was found in his lungs, and there were no signs of violence on his body.
After the autopsy, Hyde’s body was put in a coffin and taken to the Eternal Garden Cemetery at Mile 13 on the George Price Highway, where he was buried.
Erleen Tucker, Hyde’s devastated mother, told us that September 1, would have been his birthday, and a memorial would be held on his birthday to honor him. She said that the family will have a barbecue on that day, since Hyde had wanted to celebrate his birthday with a barbecue.
In talking to us, Tucker said that Michael was not a seaman. He was an electrician. There had been a lull in work and he wanted money to celebrate his birthday that was coming up, so he went to their friend and neighbor Fabian Johnson, who owns CoCo Caye in the Turneffe area, and asked him for a job. Johnson reportedly told him that he only had a watchman post available on the caye, because he was dismissing the present watchman.
Hyde then went to Coco Caye in the Turneffe area last Thursday, August 15, to take up the watchman job, and the owner left Coco Caye after dropping him off.
The previous watchman, who remained on Coco Caye with Hyde until Johnson returned, told Johnson, when he returned on Thursday, that he, the watchman, left the caye on Tuesday and went to Turneffe to spend the day with his brother, leaving Hyde alone on the caye that day, but when he came back to Coco Caye that same Tuesday evening, Hyde was nowhere to be found.
Hyde’s family and friends told us that he was not a swimmer, and would not venture into water above his knees. If he ventured into water that was more than knee-deep or reached his waist, he would request assistance from his family members who went swimming with him, they said.
The family said that when he was found, he was without his shirt. They said that a Coast Guard base was at Calabash Caye, which is close to Coco Caye, and they see no reason why the watchman could not have called the Coast Guard to report Hyde missing, rather than waiting until Thursday to tell his employer when he came to do a routine check.
As soon as Fabian Johnson was told that Hyde was missing he called Hyde’s family to alert them that he was missing and he gathered some men and began a search, during which Hyde’s body was found and was secured so that he did not float away.
Even though Hyde’s family doesn’t know what happened on Tuesday on Coco Caye, they are glad that his remains were found and that they were able to lay him to rest at a spot where Tucker and her family knows where he is buried and can go there anytime and talk to him and lay flowers on his grave. She and the family have at least gotten closure.
Tucker also has a nagging doubt, however, because the watchman told police that he saw Michael heading towards the reef, which he would never do, she told us, knowing that he was not comfortable with water.
She said that she does not buy that story and figured that something was seriously wrong, but when relatives confronted him, the watchman was adamant that he had nothing to do with Hyde’s death.
Two of her neighbors, Earl and Joseph Garbutt, went to sea in May 2010 and disappeared. To date, they have not been found. At the time, their father told police that his two sons, who were seasoned sailors and fishermen, went to Roatan, Honduras, to buy a skiff. They arrived in Roatan and were seen leaving Roatan and entering the area of Gladden Spit in southern Belize, then they disappeared. There was a massive search for them, but the effort was in vain. Michael Hyde is survived by his mother, Erleen Tucker; his father, three brothers and a sister. He is also survived by a host of relatives and friends. A memorial will be held on September 1 at the Nazarene Church on Princess Margaret Drive, Belize City, at 2:00 in the afternoon to honor him.
Today at the police press brief ASP Alejandro Cowo told us that the autopsy on Hyde’s body did not reveal foul play and that he died of drowning.
Also, Hyde did not have a police record.