Belama resident charged with murder, again

Five months after the body of a former police officer was found off the Hummingbird Highway, tonight police have charged a Belize City man with murder. On Monday, twenty-one year old Jeremy Harris, a resident of Belama Phase two was charged with murder in connection with the death of forty year old Raymond Olivera, a former police corporal and a taxi driver working out of Belmopan. In late January, Olivera’s decomposing body was found in the vicinity of Ring Tail Village near the Blue Hole National Park. Subsequent investigations led police to suspect that Olivera was being tortured when he suffered a heart attack and died. Months later police would find his car abandoned in San Ignacio. But the most dramatic twist in the murder investigation emerged when Olivera’s watch and cell phone were found in a Belama Phase three home as police investigated another murder, that of Philip Chin. Harris, the man now charged with Olivera’s murder, was one of four people eventually arrested and charged for the brutal murder of Chin. Following that arrest, police led the media to believe that the foursome were part of a violent gang responsible for the deaths of Mark Ireland, Anthony Adderley and the attempted murder of Joel Waight. To date, the suspected ringleader of the group, twenty-six year old Jermaine Fuentes and his associate, twenty-one year old Ian Sutherland, remain at large despite a nationwide manhunt. The duo is considered armed and dangerous and anyone knowing their whereabouts is asked to contact the nearest police station immediately.