Taxi driver murdered in Benque

Officially, he is a resident of Melchor de Mencos, Guatemala, but fifty-year-old Belizean Edgar Catalan had family ties on both sides of the border. But no matter where he resided, tonight he is dead, the victim of murder. On Saturday morning, just after midnight police came across his taxicab parked suspiciously at the side of the road near the junction of the Western Highway and Calla Creek Road. When officers went to investigate, they found Catalan’s body slumped over the steering wheel with gunshot wounds to the back of his head, lower back, and left arm. Police in Benque Viejo say Catalan, who operated his taxi from the western border, may have been killed by a passenger he was transporting. The white Toyota Camry station wagon is now parked at the Benque police station and anyone who may have seen or heard anything that could lead investigators to Catalan’s killer or killers is asked to call the crime stoppers hotline at 922.