Why Would Anyone Want Leroy “Timba” McKoy/Fuller Dead?

Leroy McKoy

On Wednesday, we reported on the discovery of the body of a man in a shallow grave in Hattieville Village. While family and friends believed it to be Leroy Fuller, who also goes by the name Leroy McKoy and the alias Timba, there was still no confirmation from the Belize Police Department on the identity of the victim. Today, a News Five team revisited the area and spoke with Radiance McKoy, who confirmed that not only is her son the victim, but that she also heard a gunshot on the night of December nineteenth, the last time Timba was seen or heard from. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

Leroy “Timba” McKoy, who also uses the last name Fuller, is the latest victim of a murder, as 2022 is quickly coming to an end. His body was discovered on Wednesday morning inside a shallow grave, about a foot and a half deep, ten yards into some bushes off the George Price Highway, near the Hector Creek Bridge. Residents and close friends found it strange at first that he was missing, but his mother, Radiance McKoy, says that she knew he was murdered and believes she heard the shot on Monday night.

Radiance McKoy

Radiance McKoy, Mother of Deceased

“Monday night, I ina mi bed and I pow, one hard gunshot. The Tuesday, nobody see Timba and ih fi go across to that lady cause dah that lady ih go give joke and give ahn thing. So dehn bwai say make we go look and see if we see Timba anywhere. So when my son gone di mawning up yonder, he see Timba slipper on the street side and ih see wah like wah streak of blood. So dehn bwai say mek we go check right dah di rundown and when dehn look deh see wah grave like ih done mi di dig but ih got stomp. So dehn gone more and dehn find wah ‘nother grave and when dehn hail di police and dehn dig up dah mi Timba right ina di grave deh fi true. Dah he mi deh right ina di grave deh dead.”

The victim was executed, shot to the head, somewhere on the highway and his body dragged into the bushes and buried. But who would want Timba dead and why?

Radiance McKoy

“Timba hustle good money so I noh know weh dehn kill Timba fah. I noh know. But god knows; yo lef dehn ina God hands. As far as I know Timba noh do nobody nothing, nothing, but dah sake ah di drugs. Ih go up yonder and ih mussi talk up cause yo can’t tell he no cause he wah backtalk yo. And dehn dodge ahn right deh because dehn bwai say dehn see the streak how dehn haul ahn in and bury ahn. This morning now, the same young man weh dehn say kill mi son, ih friend weh di sell tamales out deh, ih chase Timba son with a knife – chase ahn way by the house back deh. Me noh know weh happen; lotta thing happen out deh this morning and the police mi deh out deh so I noh know who dehn got lock up right now.  But the bwai say he wah kill all ah Timba family dehn. Fi what? We noh even know dehn lee young bwai.”

The deceased was the third son of eight children for Radiance McKoy. While the family wants justice, they also want the checkpoint just past the roundabout at mile fifteen in the village to be reinstated. Today, it would seem that that request was granted.

Radiance McKoy

“We need the police booth to come back because dehn wah think before dehn cross yah and up and down. From that police booth move, some of them do some wheelie, like partly want run ina di thing. So the police booth need fi deh deh. Anybody woulda want justice if dehn kill yo pikney, anybody woulda want justice. The way how life di go. And I can’t di cry and cry and cry because I noh wah got no hothead.”

Duane Moody for News Five.