And police suspect that a high school student also killed himself over the weekend. Police say that on Saturday, which was his 17th birthday, Kevin Francis Jex hung himself after an argument with his mother. But while that’s what the police say – his family disagrees. We were on the scene first and Keith Swift has the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
The body of 17 year old Kevin Jex was found at the rear of the Belize Tourism Industry Association’s office on Fort Street. He was found hanging on a railing with a piece of wire tied around his neck but his uncle Elton Jex doesn’t believe it was suicide.
Elton Jex, Uncle of Deceased
“He was found hanging, a BTL cable wire like, that is what they found around his neck but he has a very deep cut.
Saturday was the last time I saw Kevin and I was speaking to him. He and his mother had a little argument and the last thing I told him was to do not
disrespect your mother and go and take a walk and that was the last time I see him until they discovered his body today which is Monday.”
Keith Swift,
“Who found the body?”
Elton Jex,
“Well unfortunately they informed us that some people who were in the area found the area, they didn’t give us no names but some people who were in the area saw the body. I don’t know who it is.”
Kevin Francis Jex turned 17 on Saturday and he was entering fourth form at St. Michael’s College next month and for his family, there is no reason for him to take his life.
Elton Jex,
“The suspicion right now is they are saying it is hanging but I am telling you from my observation, from how I see the body, it doesn’t look like suicide, it looks like murder. That is how I see it. Many times he get into arguments with his mother and he just goes for a couple hours and he comes right back home but this time he never returned back home. Since Saturday he left, his mother was worrying about him, we tried to check this place and that place and nobody could find him. Rumours came to us saying Kevin might have gone to Belmopan at his auntie Patty but that was only rumours that he went to Belmopan.”
Shirley Mejia also believes that he was murdered and is convinced that her son was the target. Both her son and Kevin Jex were reportedly involved in a shooting on Friday night.
Shirley Mejia, Family Friend
“Kevin and my son were at a barbecue and I told my sister to tell my son that when I come out I will bring in my son. But the police came and told me that if I didn’t bring in my son, the gunman who are looking for my son will kill my son. That is not right for you to come and tell nobody about their child and that who was with my child will get kill. My son went into hiding, my son is still in hiding. Kevin looks like my son, they are two first cousins, two of them look alike, so I just feel it is a retaliation from the same young man.
Saturday night they couldn’t find my son cause he was in hiding so they must have picked up Kevin as my son, tek Kevin for my son and that is what gaan on right there.”
Elton Jex,
“As far as we know he was never troublesome. All he likes to do is play his music on his walkman, walk around play his music and he did a little bit of hanging out but he wasn’t a troublesome person so I don’t know how true it is. Like I tell you I don’t know how true it is if he was along with this person who shoot after somebody Friday night because that is the rumours, they are saying Kevin was along with somebody who shot somebody the other night so the person sent a message that they are going to catch any one of the guys who shot after their family and they are going to kill him. So I don’t know if Kevin was along with the people who did the shooting after the people and they caught up with him and probably did this to him.
It is very difficult because his father is in the States, his father is supposed to come back home because his father is on parole. We don’t know, we tried to locate his father but right now his mother cannot take it right now. I don’t know how my mother will take it because that is my mother’s first grandchild and that is his mother’s first child. So I don’t know how his parents will take it.”
An onsite post mortem conducted this afternoon certified that Kevin Francis Jex died from asphyxia due to hanging. The matter though is still under investigation. Kevin Francis Jex was buried this evening.
According to police, the shooting Shirley Mejia spoke about in the story actually occurred on Saturday afternoon. The victim 24 year old Gilroy Garnett says he was standing in front of his when a young man known to him as Stephan shot him in the right thigh. Mejia told us that her son is in hiding but that she plans to surrender him.
