One Man Detained Pending Investigation in Case of Missing Belizean American Missing Man

Today, the search officially began for missing Belizean American businessman Owen Tucker Senior. A group of police officers, relatives and friends gathered at the Washing Tree Eco-Park and Resort, formerly known as Crocland, to look for the sixty-six-year-old man who was last seen alive on Tuesday afternoon leaving the property. But in an interesting twist today, one of the employees, a member of the search party, was arrested by police in connection with the investigation. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

It has been three days since Belizean American businessman Owen Tucker Senior was last seen alive somewhere in the vicinity of his recently purchased Crocland property, off the Philip Goldson Highway in Biscayne. Today, his relatives who live in Belize gathered along with police and others to search for him.

Marina Tucker

Marina Tucker, Sister-in-law of Missing Man

“As his only immediate family in Belize, the most immediate – I am his sister-in-law, his niece and my sons – we decided to join the search. I went there, I just came from there and there’s only some police that is there along with Miss Bernadine, so we basically just did a small search around the property and nothing has come up so far.”

Duane Moody

“I understand that the police introduced drones….”

Marina Tucker

“Yes I did see some drone there; they are using that.”

But with each passing day, the chances of finding the sixty-six-year-old alive keep growing slimmer.  Marina Tucker and her children are, however, holding on to hope.

Marina Tucker

“We are hoping for the best at this moment, especially for his elderly mom’s sake. He is the last surviving child out of four. She has lost three of her children within an eleven-month span and this is her last surviving child. We are hoping that we will find him that he is somewhere that he will contact us. He is not a person that leaves without communicating with a family member – his son, his nieces in the U.S.  Whenever he goes, he would make sure that his mom is taken care of; the person that attends to his mom would call and make sure she’s been fed, but since Tuesday, no one has heard from him. His phone goes to voice mail.”

Relatives confirmed today that Owen Senior suffers from a heart condition, but say that if he was walking and fell ill, his body would have been found somewhere along the two-mile road between the highway and the property.

Owen Tucker Sr.

Marina Tucker

“Exactly. And he doesn’t walk without his medication. He always have a small bottle because he even mentioned to me personally some years ago when he first came to live in Belize that he never walks without that in his back so he always has that. What I am thinking is that the medication that is at home is the bigger portion and he travels with some in his pocket. But it is not that Owen is that sick that he needs that medication; probably if he has pain in his chest area that’s when he will use that medication. This is my first time back here, and I do notice there are residents in the area. It is about a mile, a mile and half in, I don’t see how he would disappear from there to the entrance here. So something have to happen between leaving and being out here.”

Also joining in on the search were those with whom Tucker Senior had been working, including friend and employee, Bernadine Reid. Reid was the person who made the missing person’s report and has been in contact with his family members. But in a shocking twist this afternoon, one of those persons – the driver with whom Tucker Senior recently had an altercation – was taken into police custody.

Bernadine Reid

Bernadine Reid, Friend of Missing Man

“When I came out, we were sitting there and the officers who were using the drone and came out, we were sitting there and Mister Jerome was there as well and they called Mister Jerome. Both of us walked across the street and they told him that he was under arrest; that he should contact his attorney and they took him away in relation to Mister Owen’s disappearance. As far as I am concerned with everything that has been going on, I know Jerome was his driver as well and Jerome was the one that took him where he wanted. And like I said yesterday, they did have their falling out over the weekend, which Mister Owen said I fired Jerome, yet on Tuesday, he called him to come and take care of the guys who were up here. So what the police have found, to be honest, I don’t know. All I know is that they took away Jerome while he was out here. On Thursday, he went into C.I.B., gave his own report and I guess they went through his phone, saw whatever texts, exchange between both of them. I don’t know what transpired from there. Since then, Mister Jerome has been up here with us trying to locate and find Mister Owen. So honestly, I don’t even know what to say.”

There has since been a halt to the construction works taking place on the property and Tucker’s son, who is on deployment in Japan, is expected to arrive in Belize in the days ahead and it is believed that the F.B.I. will be getting involved.

Marina Tucker

“I would rather the police to do their thorough investigation. My family, his family, I know they are planning to get a private investigator. We also are doing, the family is also, because it is a U.S. citizen, once the Belize Police Department is okay with it, they will let the F.B.I. get involved. So we are still at a process for things to happen.”

Duane Moody for News Five.