And while the family of Darwin Chavarria has some closure with the arrest, there's none tonight for the families of the four missing fishermen.
As we've reported the men: 19-year-old Leon Joseph, 42-year-old Omar Thompson, 29-year-old Brenton Brackett, and 25-year-old Jeffrey Gomez, were last seen departing Long Caye on the 12th of December. But that's the last anyone has seen of them.
Earlier in the week, we brought you conversation's with Thompson's brother and Brackett's father but tonight Jeffrey Gomez's sister is speaking out, saying that her brother wasn't originally a member of the crew. He'd merely hitched a ride back from Long Caye with them. She's also upset about the fact that the cops have been using a second picture of Brenton Brackett and calling him by her brother's name. She told me more via Zoom:
Sister "Currently there is no update as yet all, I know is that the Coast guard along with the police are still doing their search. My brother did not go out with the three missing persons, my brother was on Sutherland Caye working and he was hitchhiking a ride with the 3 persons who were missing. So initially when the police report was made for Brackett, Thompson, and Joseph initially their family member reported three persons and they were not aware that they picked up brother from long Caye to come to Dangriga because he was just hitchhiking a ride."
Cherisse Halsall "Now long Caye is where it gets interesting because according to the father of one of the them, it's after they left long caye that we've been able to find no trace of them."
Sister "Exactly and after long caye whereby brother was picked and it became 4 of the persons were in the boat. I just recently made a report that my brother is missing yesterday, someone made a report on my brother's behalf that was missing and up until now we don't know who actually made that report. I visited the police on Monday, Tuesday and yesterday Additionally to this the crime stopper, currently there's a Crime stopper flyer circulating on the Reporter News 5, Breaking Belize News, with the four men that are missing additionally the picture of Jeffrey Gomez, the picture of Mr Brackett, yesterday I provided the picture for my brother and I expected that the police would update this information in their system. I don't know how long it takes to update an information, but I believe that there is one database across Belize City that any police officer can access any information regarding any crime or any situation that happened in this country. For them to be circulating the wrong information is like you're saying that every time we're seeing my brother's picture out, we're not seeing my brother's picture on the media but the name and not the picture, it cause more pain to my family. All what I want to know, I actually made a phone call because on the flyer it says if you have any news or information regarding these missing men, you call 922, I called 922 just recently and yes it's an international hotline and I basically asked the person where they got the information from and they told me they receive this information from the police. So, it's the police that is giving these information and they need to update this flyer. And that's what I'm trying to get across I want the picture of my brother to be circulated, the right picture."
Cherisse Halsall "How can you find him is they are not using the proper picture?"
Sister "Exactly, how can you find him, whether if he is dead or alive, how can you find him if you are not circulating the proper picture?"
Once again, The Coast guard is asking anyone with information to please contact their operations center at 222-5262 or call the nearest police station.
