Police: Drowned Victim Jumped into Lagoon to Test Water Depth

Today, the Police Department’s Communications Director, Assistant Superintendent Fitzroy Yearwood, confirmed that it was Betancourt who took his family on the lagoon and that he jumped into the water to test the depth of the lagoon.

Fitzroy Yearwood

ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, Belize Police Department

“Sometime around four p.m., in the village of Gales Point Manatee, the body of Benigno Betancourt was recovered from the lagoon by members of his family. Police were called out earlier, sometime after two o’clock by the proprietor of the Manatee Lodge, where they reported that Mr. Betancourt was on a family trip with eighteen adults and five children when he took a group out on a canoe in the lagoon. The family members reported that Mr. Betancourt exited the canoe to test the depth of the water for them and did not resurface. About a minute later they jumped into the lagoon to try to find him but he was not found until sometime after four. He was transported to the Southern Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead by a medical officer.”

A post mortem examination is scheduled for later this week on Betancourt’s body.