MAHOGANY HEIGHTS, Belize District, Mon. June 29, 2015–The search for Desmond “Mumush” Usher (also known as Myers), 23, of Mahogany Heights, who was reported missing since Saturday, concluded at about 9:30 this morning when his decomposing body was found in a pimento patch near the water reservoir behind Mahogany Heights.

The body was discovered by Usher’s relatives and friends who had been searching for him since Saturday, after he failed to return home Friday night. He apparently had been beaten and tortured to death.

Sharima Neal, his devastated common-law wife who was a member of the search party who found her husband, told Amandala this morning that he was at home in Mahogany Heights on Saturday, then went out, but returned at about 8:30 Saturday night, bringing her food at her mom’s house. He then told her to get ready because he would be coming back for her to take her home, but he was first going to see his father, in the village, and then he left the house.

However, Neal said, she became nervous when after a long period of time, he did not return. She called his father, who told her that he was with him when he got a call and left his house.

Neal said that she began to text his friends and making queries at likely places where he could have been, but he had not been seen by any of them and she had not gotten any text message or call from him from him, so they all began to worry, because it was not like him to stay out late and not to keep his word to her.

Usher did not return home that night.

The following morning, Neal, her family and their friends went to the police and reported Usher missing, after which they began to search for him through the village and the surrounding area of Mahogany Heights.

They then went to the reservoir area at about 5:00 this morning, and at about 9:30, the devastating discovery was made. Members of the search parties, who had broken up into different groups, came to the area and found him dead and already decomposing.

In describing the terrain where he was found, Neal wondered how a person could have been taken into the area, because going there was difficult, and members of the search party had been slipping and sliding as they tried to walk in the unfriendly terrain.

Neal said that the killers succeeded in taking away someone who was well-loved, was not involved in gang activity or violence, and was an industrious worker who supported his family.

An onsite autopsy, the results of which have not yet been released, was performed to certify the cause of Usher’s death, and his body will be taken to his hometown of Gales Point, Manatee, where he will be buried.

His older brother, Cecil Usher, who was in the search party which discovered the corpse, told reporters that he had been determined to find his brother, and was not going home without recovering him.

He said that while searching, he looked up and saw vultures, and began to wonder what was attracting them, and he and his friend made their way to the area. They separated to search more effectively, and began shouting his name for a response, but shortly after, his friend, who was searching not too far from him, shouted,” Boy, yu bredda di ya”.

Cecil said that he quickly rushed to the pimento patch, where he saw his brother lying on the ground. His face was badly swollen, and there were other indications that he had been badly beaten, he said.

Another family member said that Neal’s feet and hands had been tied. There was even an allegation that before he had left for his rendezvous with death, a girl had called him. This, so far, has not been established.

Cecil said that his brother was well-known in the village, having lived there for three years, and he was well-liked. He is at a loss as to why his brother was killed.

Many believe, however, that Usher had been lured to his death. A family member said that the call he got before he disappeared was from a woman, but this has not been confirmed.

Police have begun an investigation into the tragic murder.

According to Usher’s family, he was the younger brother of Leonard “Ghost” Myers, one of the four men who were found dead in the upper flat of a house at the corner of Dean and Plues Streets on January 11, 2013. “Ghost” had been stabbed 38 times, an autopsy had certified.

The family also noted that Denfield Bowen, of Plues Street, who was found on May 21 decomposing in his truck in the Mile 8 community, 21 days after he was reported missing after he left home on the evening of April 30, was a cousin of theirs.

Desmond Myers is survived by his common-law wife, Sharima Neal; two children and a third on the way; his father, Leonard Myers, Sr., and many relatives and friends.

His body will be taken to Manatee today to be buried.