Body of Vietnam veteran causing a stink

The body of a man found in his rented apartment in Placencia is creating a stir because the body is decomposed and authorities say it can’t be moved until tomorrow. The man is a retired Vietnam veteran, who has been dead presumably since Tuesday night. He lived in a rented apartment behind Everyday Shopping Centre in Placencia, where his body was found and will have to remain. That’s because pathologist, Doctor Mario Estradabran, will not be able to perform the autopsy until Saturday morning. The nude body of fifty-eight year old Bruce Martin was discovered around four-thirty on Thursday afternoon after his landlord, Louis Leslie, pried open his door. Leslie told News Five that a foul odor emanating from Martin’s room caught his attention and when he called, his tenant did not respond. But Leslie is up in arms that his other tenants will have to stomach the stench until the post mortem is conducted.

Louis Leslie, Landlord (Via Telephone)
“The condition ah di body, ih deh eena wah bad state right now and it’s actually not in a body bag or anything as such. This guy is just open lying on the bed. And dis man ih deh eena wah bad state, ih mi need fi go to di morgue eena Dangriga; get placed eena wah body bag and ker deh instead ah lef deh eena nowhere to rot to nothing.”

Marion Ali
“What did the police tell you? Why they couldn’t do it?”

Louis Leslie
“Well, dehn tell me dat Dangriga noh wah accept a body in dat decomposed condition. Dehn only want to accept fresh dead, as they say, that’s their quote. And they are saying they can’t do anything until tomorrow. Tomorrow wah be about five days so you could imagine that situation.”

Marion Ali
“He wasn’t discovered until Thursday evening late though right?”

Louis Leslie
“Yeah, around four, four-thirty when we gone and check pan ah because we miss ah fi wah few days and dat unfortunate thing happened to him I guess sometime Tuesday. I observed some medication eena di apartment when di police came and they went inside but I could not say what those are. I don’t know that but the police would have these information.”

Marion Ali
“So you don’t think he was murdered?”

Louis Leslie
“definitely not. He has monies over the house and the coffee table there with all things laid out normally like a normal kind of thing. Anybody would have done anything to him they would ah mi ker ih money because it was obvious that money was there noh.”

Martin has been in Belize for the past two months since he arrived from Honduras on a tour of Central America. Police say they suspect no foul play in Martin’s death since there are no visible signs of violence on his body and also because there were prescription pills and liquor bottles found near his body. Martin was last seen alive on Tuesday of this week.