Phillip Palma Found Dead in Shallow Grave on Coastal Island
Phillip Palma
The lifeless body of fifty-five-year-old Phillip Palma was discovered in a shallow grave on an island off the coast of Belize City over the weekend. Palma was reported missing by a relative on Wednesday, September fourteenth, after the family received alarming reports that he had been kidnapped. Since then, his family and police officers have been conducting searches in known hotspots, including the John Smith Road. But, it was not until Palma’s relatives conducted a search on the small island where he worked as a caretaker that they made the gruesome discovery. This was on Saturday, September seventeenth at around midday. News Five’s Paul Lopez has the story.
Ricardo Palma
Ricardo Palma, Brother of Deceased
“I was at home and my sister second to me who is Martha Palma gives me a surprise call and when I heard the call he said what happen? She said, you get the information of your brother went missing; they just kidnap your brother. I say, kidnap my bredda? So, I say, that really strange to me, I nuh really understand.”
Ricardo received that call early last week. A young woman who he did not identify delivered Phillip Palma’s cell phone to his sister. The young woman also informed the sister that her brother had been kidnapped.
Ricardo Palma
“To me it sounds fishy, because I get a phone from anyone of you guys concerning my family, how did you get this phone? So far, I am not getting any response from police any at all.”
Paul Lopez
“Do you know if police named that person a suspect?”
Ricardo Palma
“Well I don’t know anything, no police, I nuh have talking with no police period from then to now. I don’t have talking with no police. The police deh never went with us. We mih the ask the police fihguh and try assist wih, deh never want guh dah the place, because deh she deh done gawn deh.”
The location Ricardo Palma is referring to is on a small island just off the coast of Belize City. Phillip Palma worked as a caretaker on the property. This is where Ricardo and the search team found Phillip’s lifeless body, buried inside a shallow grave.
ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, B.P.D.
“It was on a little island about a mile or so out at sea from Coast Guard base. We know that the police officers were canvassing the John Smith Highway. On Friday police went into that same area but didn’t locate the body. On Saturday, the family assisted by members of the public went back in that area and found what they believe was Phillip Palma’s body.”
Duane Moody
“Sir the fact that he was found in a shallow grave would suggest that he was murdered and placed there.”
Fitzroy Yearwood
“Well first off all he was missing and yes being found in a shallow grave would suggest that he was placed there by someone else or some party.”
Ricardo believes that his brother was kidnapped and murdered over drugs.
Ricardo Palma
“Bredda if you really want to know, I am an ex-soldier. I am not anybody so dusty. The information that I get, I really, well let me seh it one time. I get fih understand it was a wet drop. It was a wet drop. I didn’t know anything about it. That’s why I neva want to say like that because people might want to look at me a different way. So when I got the information that he went missing and so much days they can’t find him I said, good they tell me dah wah wet drop, so you know what they went to do, pick up my brother and take him back to that spot and if they find it they will kill him and if they don’t find it they don’t find it they will still kill him. That was in my mind.”
Police told reporters that they are following several leads in their investigation into Palma’s murder.
Fitzroy Yearwood
“I know that the police are following several leads. To be more conclusive we are relying a lot on investigators following up on everything that the family is saying right now. I am certain that as soon as we believe we have a cause of death, we will know which direction to take.”
While police investigate, Ricardo Palma is left to mourn the death of his brother, only three months after losing his son to gun violence.
Ricardo Palma
“I am taking a pain, I am taking a pain. Only talking to you guys if you only know what I am going through. It is nothing nice chief. All of us miss our brother. When I gawn dah the spot I tremble. I dah know dehkinda people like that. I dig out my breda.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.
