Since early September there’s been a spike in homicides in the city and since last Thursday there’s been a disturbing increase in violent crime in other parts of the country. That continued this weekend with a merciless killing in Corozal. But we start in the City.....In terms of murder we thought we’d seen it all, but this morning when police were carting a body out of the Lord’s Ridge Cemetery, it was another sad first. And even more disturbing is that a tombstone someone’s tombstone may have been used to kill him. 7News was on the scene.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
Teresita Soberanis dashed across the cemetery at 8:30 this morning, desperate and terrified she knew that waiting at the edge of Lord’s Ridge was that sight which every parent fears most: to see her child dead strewn in a ditch.
Twenty year old son Randy Coye was found one day after his mother reported to police that her youngest son left home on Friday night and had not returned. The body was badly decomposed and it is strongly believed that Randy Coye was killed sometime after eight on Friday night; that was the last time he was seen alive.
His remains were found between this high bush and tomb situated on the eastern
edge of the Lord Ridge Cemetery. The most compelling piece of evidence gathered at this scene was this tombstone that was found next to the body. At this time authorities strong believe the heavy piece of concrete was used in the killing. How is not known at this time but it certainly took two policemen to carry away the evidence.
Family members who live nearby fear for their own lives and did not wish to appear on camera but they say they became increasingly concerned about his safety throughout the weekend when there was no word on his whereabouts
Voice of Family Member,
“He always was on the street and thing with his friends. He is a person he doesn’t got no beef with nobody so he would anywhere. Friday night we saw him, we didn’t see him on Saturday, and Sunday we didn’t see him. Normally he would come by Saturday afternoon. I got a bad dream, I told my sister and I told them about the dream and I hadn’t seen him Sunday and I got signs and thing and I told my brother I done know he is dead already because we weren’t seeing him and I had already felt funny.
The family admits that Randy Coye had gotten into problems with the law but nothing they believe would cause him to be murdered.
Voice of Family Member,
“They find his body at burying ground. When I went up there I just see his body done decompose and everything. I don’t know he died, I don’t know if it is gunshots, stab, what but they found a pillar by his head, the cement pillar (tombstone) which they write on.
But they chance him because he was drinking the night, he never really high. When I saw him he told me blackout was by burying ground. His routine or route was through burying ground. Somebody followed him, and blackout was back there, they dodged him behind the grave and they just jumped him and killed him back there.
Reports to 7News are that twenty year old Randy Coye was not the intended target but it was his brother Richard Russell who has been targeted in gang rivalries previously; he had been attacked twice in the past year and was shot to the midsection one of those times. Since then, he’s been lying low away from the city and now, his youngest brother is collateral damage in an ongoing battle
Voice of Family Member,
“I will be straight up, you will rob and do little things but he had gotten off. He is not in those wars that are going on in the street. Why don’t they target who they want. Why are they afraid to face the person who they have beef with and chance his little brother. Why would they take it out of him. They chanced him. They know he probably couldn’t defend himself because he was a maga person, he is thin and everything, and they jumped him. He already had some liquor in his system and they chanced him because they saw him drinking and he had a coke bottle in his hand. They chanced him out of his life.
And who ever killed twenty year old Randy Coye remains at large. According to police they have no one detained as yet for the homicide. Jacqueline Godwin for 7News.
Because the body was decomposed police had to take it to an abandoned area off the northern highway to conduct the post mortem. There are no suspects but police are working to avert a retaliation given the history of gun violence against Richard Russell, the brother of the deceased and the fact that the family of the deceased and the rival gang live in close proximity.
