Mother fears the worst for her teenage son
Hansel Garcia
A family in Dangriga is desperately searching for seventeen year old Hansel Garcia, who disappeared without a trace three weeks ago. The young man left his residence in the company of a friend and that was the last time anybody in his family saw him alive. We’ve covered many missing persons’ stories over the years, and we know that many of them do have happy endings. But Garcia’s mother, Indira Martinez, fears the worst. Hansel celebrated his seventeenth birthday on September twenty-ninth, and Martinez says the young man was troubled because two weeks before that he had an altercation with a neighbour. She claims that her son told her that Police made him out to be a snitch after they busted the neighbour with marijuana. And she says that because of the incident, her son felt like a man marked for death. Hansel Garcia lived with his cousin, who is a fisherman, and everybody felt that he was out at sea making a living. But he wasn’t, and the last time his cousin saw him was when he left in the company of a friend. Indira Martinez feels that he was lured to his death by that friend, the only one her son trusted. Today she broke down as she pleaded for information about her son…if only so she could lay him to rest properly.
Indira Martinez, Mother of Hansel Garcia
Indira Martinez
“When he came the night of his birthday I asked him…I said Hansel what happened? What is the problem why you don’t come to look for me? He said Mommy…because he’s like that. I said son I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what happened. That’s what I told him. And that’s when he told me – “when the Police went to the neighbour’s house two weeks ago they met me by the edge of the road and the Police told me that if they found anything on me they would beat me. And I told them that they could search him because he didn’t have anything. So they searched him, and when they searched him they didn’t find anything.” So they proceeded to the young man’s house and when they reached his house…according to what my son said to me because that’s the only thing I can talk from – he said Mommy, when the Police arrived at his house they went straight to the marijuana and they got it….then, according to what my son said, the Police told the neighbour that my son told them where the marijuana was so that is the whole problem with the altercation. As I reached by his cousin the first question he asked me is Mommy, where’s Hansel? I told him that I was coming to ask him the same question. He said that three weeks ago “Shatta” went, because that is what they called him. He said…and that’s not like him, he would have come back. He told me that he sent “Shatta” to buy Kool Aid and he brought back the Kool Aid. He said when “Shatta” brought back the Kool Aid he told him that he was going out with Fabian but he was coming right back. Fabian is his best friend. He said that was the last time he saw Hansel…the last time anybody saw Hansel he was with Fabian who is his best friend. And he was the one who came and asked me where my son was, and that is what drew my concern. So I would really want to tell him that if he buried him to give me the respect to tell me where his body is so we can bury him properly…at least put my heart at ease because if I don’t find his body my heart won’t be at ease.”
According to Martinez, her son told her that he had been threatened by the neighbour. News Five spoke to Dangriga Police who told us that they are treating it as a missing person case and are not presuming the worst. Hansel Garcia is five feet six inches tall, dark complexioned, slim built with brown eyes and short hair. He has a tattoo on his inner arm with the word MOM. Anyone with any knowledge of his whereabouts is asked to call the nearest Police Station or 911.
