Two drown in weekend tragedies

Two people have died in separate drowning incidents over the weekend. In Cotton Tree, thirteen-year-old Jose Victor Aldana was swimming in the Belize River around noon on Sunday when he suddenly went underwater and did not come up. His body was found later in the day and a post-mortem indicated that he had drowned. In Caye Caulker, the body of twenty-five year old Junio Alvarez was recovered on Monday around twenty miles east of the island. Alvarez had been missing since Saturday when he, along with three women and one man, left San Pedro en route to Caye Caulker in a sixteen-foot skiff. According to thirty-seven year old Hector Noralez, the boat ran out of gas about two miles from Caye Caulker and he and Alvarez jumped out and began to swim in search of help. After two hours of swimming, Noralez claims he lost sight of Alvarez. A police search party recovered the body around 5:00 Monday evening. Due to the advanced state of decomposition, it remains isolated on a remote island awaiting a post-mortem.