Darwin Rocke is Murdered and His Body Dumped Off Boom Hattieville Road

Darwin Rocke

A body was found this morning at entrance of the Burrell Boom, Belize District. The upper part of the body was covered with a plastic bag and covered with a tarpaulin.  Soon after the discovery, family members were able to confirm that it was one of their own, Darwin Rocke. He had been killed and his body dumped in the Boom area. Rocke was thirty-six years old; a post mortem had to be performed immediately due to the advanced state of decomposition.  News Five’s Duane Moody was in the area this morning as the police processed the scene.

Duane Moody, Reporting

Around eight o’clock this morning, residents off the Boom Hattieville Circuit near the cut-off to Burrell Boom Village picked up an odour in the area. The police were called in to investigate and within minutes a portion of the thoroughfare was locked off to vehicular traffic. About ten feet from the pavement in a ditch in some bushes, but in plain view, what appeared to be a body tightly wrapped in plastic could be seen.

Supt. Alejandro Cowo, O.C., C.I.B., Eastern Division

“This morning at about eight-thirty, police were called to Burrell Boom road where police upon arrival about five hundred feet off the old Burrell Boom Bridge and about ten feet off from the Boom road, they observed a body of a person wrapped up in plastic bag and a blue in colour trampoline. The body was recently removed from the scene and was taken to the medical college for a post-mortem.”

The body was in an advanced state of decomposition and so the pathologist was called in to do an emergency post-mortem to determine the cause of death. The remains would have to be buried immediately after. While at the medical college on the Boom Hattieville Road, two men arrived and identified the body as being that of Belize City resident, thirty-four-year-old Darwin Devon Rocke.

At the time of the Police Press Brief earlier today, Superintendent Alejandro Cowo could only share initial details.

Alejandro Cowo

Supt. Alejandro Cowo

“I cannot tell you exactly of what injuries because of the decomposition state. We have to wait until the doctor does the post-mortem then he will guide us from there on.”

Reporter

“Did you say the gender?”

Supt. Alejandro Cowo

“It has been confirmed that it is a male person.”

Reporter

“Hispanic, dark?”

Supt. Alejandro Cowo

“I cannot tell you because of the state of decomposition. I don’t want to tell you it is a dark person cause a Hispanic person, when its decomposition, it turns that colour likewise. So I don’t want to really get into complexion at this time.”

Burrell Boom residents are stunned by the gruesome discovery and the incident has the police looking for clues to a motive. The manner in which the body was wrapped in plastic and tarp would suggest that the murderer or murderers killed Rocke elsewhere and disposed of the body in the remote area of the village.

Reporter

“Given that the victim was wrapped up in the fashion that the person was, would suggest maybe a body dump.”

Supt. Alejandro Cowo

“Yeah that is what we believe; that the body was dumped at that location.”

Reporter

“And it was only the body? No weapon?”

Supt. Alejandro Cowo

“Only a body was found.”

Duane Moody for News Five.