He had been hacked to death and buried in a shallow grave

MAYA MOPAN, Belmopan, Cayo District, Tues. July 23, 2019– The search by police and family members  for Porfilio Nino, 65, a farmer of Maya Mopan, came to a sad end at about 12:30 midday today. Nino was found hacked to death, buried in a shallow grave on his farm in Maya Mopan three days after he was reported missing.

Police, who were conducting a search for him, found the body in a state of decomposition. Nino had been chopped on his head and body. An onsite post-mortem was conducted, after which he was buried.

Information to us is that he was found about 125 feet away from his house on the farm, buried under a tree in a grave 16 inches deep.

Police have detained a suspect based on a letter written by Nino to his family. Nino had told his daughter that he had no enemies, but had been having altercations with two men of the area.

Yanira Rivas, his daughter, 32, who lives in Valley of Peace, Cayo District, said that she had spoken to her father on Friday, and on Saturday morning. She said that on Friday, she had begged him to sell his farm and to come to Valley of Peace to live with her, and he had agreed. She said that he usually called and spoke with her twice daily.

In speaking to other media houses, Yanira said that they had a conversation on Saturday morning, and he promised that he would call back that Saturday evening.

However, she did not hear from him on Saturday evening, and that was when she began to get worried. She called his phone, but did not get a response.

Yanira said that on Saturday night, she dreamt that her father had been murdered and that there was a wake at their house, and on Sunday morning, she and family members went to his farm to look for him, but he was nowhere to be found, and the family then went to the police and reported him missing.

Police then began to look for him.

Yanira said that throughout Sunday and Monday he was not found, but at about 10:00 this morning, Tuesday, she got a call that he had been found on his farm. She then went to his farm, but the information that had been received was not accurate, and police began to search the farm again, and at about 12:30 p.m., police found ground that had been disturbed near a tree at the end of his farm.

They began to dig in the area, and that was when they found his body.