Tuesday's girl murder in Corozal is more than just another killing - It's a cause for community outrage and there is enough finger pointing to go around.
Elia Gonzalez's father claims that the school has to set regular hours for students to be let out - and school authorities were also on the defensive this morning. Principal of the Corozal Community College- Endevora Jorgenson- told us off camera that the police's response to the call of the missing 16-year-old girl was unacceptable.
Officer commanding of the Corozal Detachment-Superintendent Michael Gutierrez says every call of a young girl gone missing is taken extremely seriously by his officers.
Supt. Michael Gutierrez, Corozal Police
"The policy of my formation here is that we respond to it immediately and we don't take anything for granted. We don't tell people to come back or give people any 48 hours. We initiate investigations immediately. We interview parents, we interview friends, and we try to check with people who may have last seen the individual. We also try to get a photograph and try to send a countrywide message to other district formations so that they can be on the alert for the particular person. So we don't wait for the 48 hours and we deal with it right away. This case will show the police responded and reacted to it immediately."
As we noted earlier on - one man - a resident of nearby Concepcion Village has been detained and is expected to be charged tomorrow.