A homeless man was found dead in the waters off the Fort George Pier this afternoon. And while there’s rarely anyone to grieve for the homeless, this dead man may be slightly different. That’s because Cyril Coleman had become part of the city’s jagged and roughshod landscape. You may not have known him by name but as Jacqueline Godwin found out, if you’ve walked downtown Belize City, you will remember Cyril Coleman for his stare.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
His eyes and that particular stare that Cyril Coleman had come to be known for made for one of the defining images of the 2008 general elections. Indeed he was a well known Belize City street character but today the man known as Cyril, Stencil and Robot was found washed up in the sea near the Radisson Pier.
The body was discovered around two fifteen this afternoon. It was lying face down in the water. It was retrieved from the water by Francisco Matute and a
friend. We caught up with Matute as the police transported the body over to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
Francisco Matute, Retrieve Body from Water
“We were hanging and they came to tell us that somebody was out by the Fort swimming. We know a lot of our friends like to go out there swimming so we felt it was one of them. We jumped on our bikes and we went out there. When we went out, we saw the person, his face was down in the water, but only the back of his head you could see. He wasn’t far from the rocks so we just went in and hauled him out. When we hauled him out, we saw that it was Cyril.”
We won’t know what fate befell Cyril Coleman in the seas until a post mortem is conducted, but sources tell 7NEWS that he was last seen alive this morning at the corner of Queen Street and New Road.
Jacqueline Godwin,
Were there any injuries on his body?
Francisco Matute,
“Well it looked like fish eat out his eyes and bite his lip and underneath his throat had something like a knife mark, like one cut at his windpipe and right in the pickup blood is coming out of it so it is something that recently happened.”
And while no one can say if he drowned or was killed what we do know is that Belize City has lost one of its colourful street characters.
Gilvano Swasey, Artist
“I am very amazed or very interested in people I don’t know or people who stand out from the norm and Cyril has stand out from the norm in several aspect, meaning in the sense that we see him as a street character, some see him as crazy. As an artist I saw him as someone with a different view on life and not just the way how he was separated from the rest of society but the way how he dressed and the way how he carried himself. He was very decent, very innocent in a sense and very helpful, never disrespectful but he was very open.”
And while Cyril was considered to be what city residents would call a ‘crazy man’ he was not known to trouble anyone and he had a very distinct style.
Gilvano Swasey,
“What I liked about Cyril is that he reminded me every day that materialistic stuff wasn’t the most important thing but the human touch and I mentioned that, I think it was three years ago I did the cover of the BTL phone book and I had several images that I had chosen for the cover and in the text I mentioned Cyril. Everyday when you come to work in the morning, every day you’re worrying if your bank book is going to fall apart or if you’re going to lose your job but Cyril was always one of the faces that you would meet and he would give you hope that don’t matter if that falls because I don’t have one either – things could still be okay.”
Reporting for 7NEWS, Jacqueline Godwin.
As was noted in the story, police cannot say whether it was foul play or not until a post mortem is conducted. That has been scheduled for tomorrow.
