Search for Missing Person Near John Smith Road is Fruitless
Christopher Sosa
Christopher Sosa has been missing for the past six days, but his family only just reported his disappearance on January eighth. His family acknowledges that the twenty-nine-year-old has a criminal past and they believe that he may have been killed and his body dumped somewhere in the Belize District. His sister has led a search effort that has taken a team, including personnel from the Belize Coast Guard, to various locations. Those attempts to find him have been futile. This morning, it was reported that a shallow grave was discovered off the John Smith Road, a lonely stretch that has become synonymous with the disposal of bodies. As it turned out, that information was inaccurate. Nonetheless, we spoke with Sosa’s sibling who told reporters that they are frantically looking for his remains. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
A desperate effort by family and friends to locate a missing Belize City resident, presumed dead, led a search party down an unsurfaced path off the John Smith Road this morning. Following a lead that a shallow grave had been discovered across from the Western Pines community, a team of police officers and Scenes of Crime personnel visited the area and proceeded on foot, approximately a mile and a half into a grassy plain. Twenty-nine-year-old Christopher Sosa was last seen on January fifth. When his family did not hear from three days later, a missing person’s report was filed with the Belize Police Department.
Voice of: Sister of Missing Man
“We know ih mi missing from Saturday, Saturday afternoon, basically, and then we just seh, “Alright, we wahn wait one more night fi sih if ih wah come home.” So Saturday night da mi di last night we mi di try wait for ahn fi sih if ih mi wahn come home. When ih neva come home Saturday night, then Sunday I just tell my ma [that] I think we need fi mek wahn report. So we gaan ahead and mek di missing person’s report and then da from then rumors start to circulate, you know, something happen to my bredda. And from then, Sunday after we done mek di report, from then we start this search fi my bredda, but nothing.”
Sosa is no stranger to the law. In fact, his ties to an infamous Belize City gang are well known. In 2018, he was one of two men acquitted of the murder of Romel Palacio Sr., who was shot multiple times to various parts of the body on Father’s Day 2011.
Voice of: Sister of Missing Man
“My bredda had ih life, yoh undastand, he’s been out there, yoh know, and he do weh he had to mi do and I cyant judge ahn fi dat. I noh wahn judge ahn fi dat, yoh undastand, dat da between he and God. So maybe something come back to he, yoh know.”
Isani Cayetano
“How did you find out about the police and Scenes of Crime effort today to try to find either evidence of his belongings or perhaps a shallow grave, as it was initially rumored earlier?”
Voice of: Sister of Missing Man
“Well da my, I have family members out this side weh di look fi he pan dis side ah di road. Soh da one ah my family members notify we from earlier, but yoh know, we still mi di do weh we mi di do pan our side. Da til dehn call me and tell me that ih could possibly be somebody eena di grave da how comes we deh ya.”
Sosa was last seen wearing a grey T-shirt and black shorts with red stripes on the side, on his feet was a pair of black Nike slides. He is the second person affiliated with the same group that remains unaccounted for. The other is twenty-three-year-old Kyle Latchman, who was last seen on December twenty-sixth, 2022.
Isani Cayetano
“Talk to us about the search effort that the family is conducting to try to either find Chris Sosa alive or to retrieve his remains.
Sister of Missing Man: Well the search, everything the yield empty for us. We gaan everywhere weh I could possibly think bout, everywhere and nothing. Nothing.”
Isani Cayetano
“Give us an idea of the locations that you guys have visited in search of your brother.”
Voice of: Sister of Missing Man
“John Smith Road, Hattieville, we gaan way up da Mahogany Heights, we gaan way up Coastal Road, we gaan through [Burrell] Boom, nothing. We gaan through Homeland Memorial, everywhere I could possibly think bout. We even gaan backa Dike, some Dike back by Faber’s Road I end up yesterday and nothing.”
Chris Sosa’s sister, who spoke with us off camera, says the family strong believe that he has been killed. Their only hope is to find his remains and give him a proper burial.
Voice of: Sister of Missing Man
“We know ih dead, we know, we know, we know fi a fact, but I just wahn dehn tell me weh my bredda deh and I just wahn put my bredda to rest and that’s it. We noh wahn nothing else, we noh di look fi nothing else, we just wahn, I just wahn find my bredda, yoh know, that’s it.”
Voice of: Sister of Missing Man
“It’s not typical that he would just leave home and not say anything to the family.”
Voice of: Sister of Missing Man
“It’s not typical. If he even lock up da station, he wahn mek ah way fi find and seh, “Yoh know, Sis, ah deh da station or even wahn call ih partner, message ih partner and tell ahn, yoh know, ah deh da station, bring something fi ah eat. It’s not typical of my bredda fi just, soh long without notifying us.”
Isani Cayetano reporting for News Five.
