One found dead and four still missing at sea

Back in November 2007 seven friends went fishing, days later the body of one was found: Magistrate Richard Swift. The six others mysteriously disappeared and were never found. Tonight there is a similar story to report of murder on the high seas. It involves a group of five fishermen who set out to sea last Thursday on board a vessel Natasha; they were due back on Saturday. But tonight the news is that at least one has been found murdered, four others are missing and the worst is feared by their families. On Monday, the body of Thomas Young was found floating in the sea. It had chop wounds all over and a gunshot wound to the chest.  It is horrible tragedy for his children who last year lost their mother. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

The grief-stricken families of five Belizean fishermen are tonight desperately trying to unravel the mystery of their disappearance at sea over the weekend.  While the  badly decomposed body of forty-nine-year-old Thomas Young was recovered by coastguard personnel on Monday evening, his colleagues remain at large.  It is unclear whether or not they may have met a similar fate.  Young’s corpse was found floating in the vicinity of Southern Long Water Caye and Long Caye with what appeared to be numerous physical injuries.

Michelle Aldana, Caretaker of Young’s Family

Michelle Aldana

“They found him floating and his body is decomposed and I couldn’t get any scene of him.  Otherwise from that I don’t know.  I would like to know the reason why they killed him and why they took him away from the family.”

Young, a resident of Lucky Strike Village, was savagely attacked and chopped repeatedly to various parts of the body, before being shot in the chest at close range.

Lt. Greg Soberanis

Lt. Greg Soberanis, Operations Officer, BNCG

“Yesterday afternoon at approximately 2:30 we received a call from the Belize Port Authority that they had a patrol in the area of Colson Caye and they were requesting coastguard assistance at that location.  We immediately deployed our Quick Response Team from the headquarters and when they arrived at that location they found out of from the port authority patrol that a body had been discovered or found floating approximately one mile east of Colson Caye.”

It is reported that Young, along with twenty-six-year-old Derwin Gentle, twenty-four-year-old Elgin Graham, thirty-four-year-old Sergio Flores and twenty-six-year-old Kenrick Devin Chi embarked on a routine fishing trip last Thursday from a dock behind the Northern Fishermen’s Cooperative.  They were scheduled to come back to Belize City by Saturday evening.  When the group failed to return by Sunday relatives grew concerned about their location.

Voice of: Stephanie Garnett, Common Law Wife of Elgin Graham

“Well we get concern and thing and so di wife ah di boss cohn and ask me if my boyfriend come een and I tell ahn no, he noh come een yet.  So she seh okay, ih seh because she di call dehn phone and nobody no di ansa no phone.  So I seh, “hmm dat no sound right.”  So she seh dat how dehn gaan down south so I sehe but ey normally down south dehn only spend one night because dehn di go so long and da only one night down south dehn spend.  But according to dehn dat dehn mi wah spend two nights.  So dehn call di Saturday morning and sehe dat how dehn mi wah come een like minutes to five.  And everybody get concerned because Saturday dehn noh come een, Sunday dehn noh come een.  So Monday we decided fi go mek di report.”

That report, as previously mentioned, was succeeded by the discovery of Young’s body.  This afternoon the family of Derwin Gentle visited the Queen Street Police Station in an effort to assist the Criminal Investigation Branch with his particulars.

Celina Gentle, Mother of Darwin Gentle

Celina Gentle

“All I know is that he left home about nine o’clock on Thursday morning and was going to sea.  He went to pick up his workmen at the co-op and they left from there and from then we didn’t get anymore news from them.”

Isani Cayetano

“So there was no contact with you guys by phone to say they were either leaving from the area they were fishing or they were safe and sound while they were there on that trip?”

Celina Gentle

“His common-law wife said he called her about eleven o’clock Friday night and told her that he was coming up Saturday and we waited on Saturday and they never showed so we started calling and never get no response from them.”

And, despite ongoing efforts to raise them by phone, the families still have not been able to make contact with the missing fishermen.  Gentle’s mother strongly believes that the men may have encountered a gang of pirates on the open sea.

Celina Gentle

“If dehn do ahn anything out deh I woulda wahn dehn mek I find ahn and mek my heart deh at ease, yo undastand cause I noh wahn di wonda and di hope, yoh noh.”

Meanwhile, the children of Thomas Young have become orphaned as this is the second parent they have lost within a year.

Michelle Aldana

“It is so hard because the kids they just lost their mother on the twenty-sixth of November makes a year that they lost their mother and they didn’t have a Christmas last year and they won’t have a Christmas this year knowing that they have lost their father. The men, along with the vessel they were traveling in, Natasha, remains at large despite a massive search and rescue or recovery effort by law enforcement agencies.”

Isani Cayetano for News Five.

In the 2007 case, Richard Swift’s body was found on Glover’s Reef on November tenth.