Police have confirmed that the decomposed body found found yesterday morning off the coast of Dangriga yesterday is Derrick Ramirez, the man who went missing at sea over a week ago.
The body was badly decomposed, but his father, Guillermo Ramirez, was able to identify him. He told us today via telephone that he recognized his son's body from his personal items, and from a tattoo on one of his legs.
There were reports that the body was headless - confirmed to other media by his father. But today, the elder Ramirez told us otherwise: he said this is not accurate. He said that it appears that someone cut off Ramirez's dreadlocks, and one of his legs was partially severed.
His cause of death has been determined to be Traumatic shock due to chop wounds.
The 35 year old was last seen when he went on a fishing trip on August 4th, with his brother and his brother-in-law. The 3 were in an area north of Cross Caye, diving for lobster when they were confronted by 3 men on a boat. These newcomers reportedly told them to leave the area. While they were packing up their fishing camp, 2 of the rival fishermen reportedly approached them with high powered weapons, took aim at Ramirez and opened fire on him. He then fled into the nearby mangroves, and that was the last time that he was seen alive.
