On Thursday night 38-year-old Jose Alvarado Sr. and his 17-year-old son, Jose Jr. went missing. The father managed the Stann Creek branch of Z Butane Services and his son was working with him for the summer. But they didn't go to their home on the Stan Creek Valley Road on Thursday evening and the family's worst fears were confirmed on Friday evening at 6:30, when both were found dead, on a feeder road off the Coastal Highway, three miles from the Stann Creek Valley Road. They had both been stabbed to death.
Police dispatched a team from the CIB office in Belize to work with the Dangriga Police, and within 24 hours, they had cracked the case, and had the four men they believe were responsible. And that's the shocking part: the man who police believe set the whole thing up is 30 year old Jose Aleman, an employee of the butane company and the son in law of Jose Alvarado Sr. and the brother in law of Jose Jr. Belize City's CIB boss Chester Williams worked on the case in Stann Creek and he told us that the motive was robbery, but it turned into murder.
ASP Chester Williams,
"They were both taken from the residence at mile 10 on the Hummingbird Highway on Thursday night sometime after 9pm. On Friday evening their bodies were found at about three and a half miles on the Coastal Road in a feeder road. Inside one of the company vehicles, Mr. Alvarado was the general manager for Stann Creek Branch of Z Gas, which is a butane company based in the Stann Creek district, the body was found inside one of the company vehicle on a feeder road, as I mentioned earlier. Their throats were slit, both of them.
Our investigations subsequently led to the arrest of four individuals: Jose Aleman, Hector Lopez, Noel Guerra, and Herbert Sosa. Based on what we gathered during the investigation, the motive for this particular time was robbery and the robbery was set up by an employee of the gas company in the person of Jose Aleman who is an employee of that gas company, a driver of the butane gas truck who delivers gas as a sales person. Ironically, he is also the son-in-law of the deceased, Mr. Jose Alvarado Sr.
Obviously Mr. Aleman did not want them to kill his father in law. But when they went and committed the crime, Mr. Alvarado knew them so they had to eliminate him and his son, and hence the reason why we believe he was murdered, because his attackers know that he knows them.
We need to commend the community who gave us the information needed for us to make this breakthrough in the investigation."
Hector Lopez, who has also been charged, was fired from the same butane company 5 months ago. Police recovered $2,700 in cash from brothers Noel Guerra and Hebert Sosa. This money is believed to have been taken from Jose Sr.'s pocket after he was killed.
