Tonight there are grave concerns that another policeman may have been killed, this time in the Corozal district. This afternoon at 1:00, Corozal police launched an operation to scour the district in the hopes of finding 38 year old police constable Maurice Martinez. Martinez, who is attached to the Orange Walk formation, has been missing since Wednesday, December 22nd. He went off duty at 4:00 pm that day and was next seen in a bar in Orange Walk town with a female companion. They left the bar at 7:30, and has not been seen since. Up until yesterday, he was presumed absent from work, but then, police found his car on a feeder road in Corozal. It was abandoned with his cellular phone and personal effects inside.
That worrying clue has left many questions unanswered and I caught up with his wife today who says she is at a loss for any explanation.
Clarine Budna,
"To me its like I'm walking in a dream right now and I hope that when I wake up that everything will just go away."
'Walking around in a dream,' an entire family adrift in a sea of worry. The looks of deep worry and bewilderment could not be wiped from the faces of Constable Maurice Martinez's family members as they sat at home waiting for any news they could get about him. His wife Clarine Budna says he left home at around 6:30 on Wednesday of last week to go to work in Orange Walk Town where he is posted. She says since that time, 8 days ago, she has not heard from him.
Clarine Budna,
"He came home last week Tuesday and he left Wednesday morning and from then nobody saw him and nobody hear anything from him. I called his phone but the only thing I get is voice mail and no answer. I was going to PG the Friday but my daughter got sick so I was trying to call him from the Thursday to tell him that well we can't go again and my daughter is sick so maybe he can come or call or you know and only voice mail. Only voicemail."
And that Budna says is unlike him. She says her concern over her husband's disappearance has escalated since Christmas because she says she got no word from him on that day.
Clarine Budna,
"He would have called. At least Christmas day he was supposed to work and he would have called Christmas day, at least. He wouldn't make Christmas day go like that and he didn't call his kids at least. He would have called."
Now the family is waiting, hoping that the next time the phone rings, it is him.
And while the family waits on that call, new information coming in to Orange Walk police this morning make it even more doubtful. Police found the woman constable Martinez was last seen with and took her in for questioning. She told them that they were parked in a secluded area behind Tony's Inn in Corozal when a group of armed men came up on them. They blindfolded them, robbed them of their jewelry, sexually assaulted her, and then took charge of her vehicle. They took them to an abandoned location and she drove off. But what happened to constable Martinez? Well that's anyone guess. She says that because of the blindfolds she never knew what happened to him. Police take that to mean the worse, noting that there have been a number of violent assaults of parked couples in that area over the years.
