_{Moises Garbutt, deceased}

by Charles Gladden

BELMOPAN, Tues. May 13, 2025

A body believed to be that of 24-year-old Moises Garbutt of Roaring Creek, whose family had reported him missing for two days, was found in Belmopan on Tuesday, May 13.

During searches for Garbutt that had been ongoing prior to the discovery, the family had received reports that he might have been in Ontario Village, but they soon dismissed these as false, and began searching in neighboring areas. Sometime after 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, a body believed to be Garbutt’s was found off the George Price Boulevard.

“We started down closer to the edge of the road, and driving through here, my daughter saw some ‘jankro’ flying over here … flying over, so we decided to stop here and check. We went through the bushes because we saw something mashed down, like something walking through it. We decided to go through there, and then I told my family to go the opposite direction, and I went the opposite direction for about 100 meters. I saw him there. He was already … his hands were up; he was stiff; he was already decomposing,” said Rachel Guzman, aunt of the deceased.

Despite the state of decomposition of the body, the family believes that Garbutt was tortured and burned while still alive.

“Thankfully, it was short; because if we waited too long, we wouldn’t find much evidence; but we started from the day when he went missing, to be honest. The first couple of days, we did not get much assistance from the police, just people from our community; but today the police pulled through. The CIB officers came out, and they assisted us,” Guzman said.

Garbutt went missing over the weekend and was last seen alive on Sunday, May 11, which was his 24th birthday. His family had prepared a birthday celebration for him, but they declared him missing when he didn’t show up.

Guzman believes that her nephew was set up and killed by several acquaintances with whom he went out to socialize at a nearby pub.

“He went down to, I think, at a bar that was close by to get more drinks and stuff with one of his friends. We have footage we have on the camera that [showed] he [walked] up and down, and three vehicles followed behind him. We did our investigation because, like we said, we weren’t getting much assistance at first; and from the investigation that we did, we realized that the people he left with took a different direction where cameras could not see him with them. He was set up. We don’t think; we know he was set up! We are sure. We are 100%,” she said.

His sister, Leah James, mentioned that the family has more questions than answers, because her brother was not someone who had conflicts with anyone.

“The real question is why? Why would someone want to do something like this to Moises? Because there isn’t anything I believe there could be in the world that could cause something like this. So, he wasn’t a troublemaker. He’s the type of person you might call [bilious]; but as soon as the day is over, he’ll be your friend again. Moises doesn’t believe in holding a grudge with anyone, and it’s disappointing to know that someone would do this to him,” she said.

Garbutt leaves behind two children of his own and was a father to a few stepchildren.