Today marks exactly 1 year and 6 days since 59 year-old Horace "Sparkles" Reyes was discovered floating in the Belize River behind the "Old River Tavern" in Burrell Boom.
Understandably, his family did not wish to speak freely with the media during that time because they felt that they needed to give the police a fair chance to conduct their investigations.
Well, the autopsy results came back inconclusive, which is to say that the medical examiner couldn't explain what definitely killed Reyes. That threw a major wrench into the police investigation and dealt a major blow to a family looking for closure, but Reyes' family still kept hope alive that his death would be properly explained in due time.
His brother, Berisford Reyes, visited 7news today to explain that, except for a single call which went to the Police Department's 922 - TIPS hotline, the investigation's trail has now gone cold. He has been making rounds to the different media houses to publicize that the family is unhappy with the police's progress, or lack thereof.
Here's what he had to say:
Berisford Reyes, brother
"Right now, presently, since last year when I went into the Ladyville police station and did the report on it, I haven't really gotten any feedback since that time."
Geovanni Brackett
"You are dissatisfied with the way the police have carried out their investigations and more so because from the pictures that you have taken of your brother you believe that your brother could not have had a natural death or that he drowned. You believe that probably he was beaten or definitely murdered. Am I right?"
Berisford Reyes, brother
"That is what I am leaning towards because with the pictures that my son took that morning, pictures don't lie, and that's all I have to look at and that's what I am looking at, and I can clearly see this gash across the face. To me he definitely took a hit from what I saw, and physically when I looked at his body just before the autopsy had begun, because I viewed his body inside the room. I checked his body thoroughly from head to toe and there were no marks, no scratches, no bruises, nothing from the neck down. The only thing I could see was this hit across the face, a piece of the lip was missing, and all the bruise blood was right there, and on the right side of his face was normal, but the left side was bruised up. That's why I believe that he was hit."
"I was called in by the police in Ladyville about a week or two after he was buried and they had told me that there was a 922-TIPS call that went into Miami. They gave me a print out of what was said; an email. My brother and I read the email in the police station in Ladyville."
"I thought when they had told me that they had gotten this call that it was something positive; somebody said something or someone had the courage to come forward to call and say something. That gave us a little hope that maybe yes, we could get something out of it but I think the police did their interview with the suspect; it's a year ago now, nothing has really surfaced after that."
Berisford Reyes brought some photographs to our news room as his proof that his brother had been struck across the head, but due to the very graphic nature we will be unable to air them.
Anyone with information on Horace Reyes' death is asked to contact the nearest police station or call 0-800 922 TIPS.
