Derrick Uh was buried this morning in Cristo Rey, Corozal. The 20 year old's life came to a most cruel end on Sunday morning when police left him for 13 hours inside a prison van.
Between grief and uncertainty - his family had been asking the media to keep their distance - but, early this morning, they invited us to the funeral - so that the community could witness and share in their pain.
Big sister Vanessa also spoke out - about her brother's troubles, and the family's inability to come to terms with the inhuman end her brother faced:
This was the moment that Derrick Uh's mother left her home in Cristo Rey Village to say her final goodbyes to her son.
And as she walked to the Iglesia De Dios Pentecostes Rio Del Jordan for the funeral, in visible agony, her eldest daughter Vanessa held her tightly.
Both women now united in faith and in grief as they move through an unspeakable family tragedy. And this morning when Raquel stood beside her son's coffin all she could do was lament her loss.
Raquel Uh, Mother of the deceased
"This emptiness that I feel inside myself is something ugly. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, anyone, anyone, and even less in the way my son died, my only son, my baby. He'd only been here a short time and had a life ahead of him. He would have been 20 in November on the 8th of October. I had plans many plans."
And among those plans were hopes that Derrick - who had taken to drinking after a bad breakup and bout of depression - would try to change his life.
His sister Vanessa says that on the weekend he died they'd encouraged him to attend a church camp.
Lea Vanessa Uh, Sister of the deceased
"My mom insisted on him going to the camp with me. My mom even got him new clothes and said I bought you these clothes because I want you to go, I have the feeling that you shouldn't go to San Joaquin Fiesta, tell me that you won't go I have the feeling that you shouldn't go and then he promised my mom that he wouldn't go, that he wouldn't go."
But Derrick did go and his presence at that fair lead to the series of events that culminated in his death.
Today, this family in mourning hoped to clear up any misconceptions that there was no one waiting and worrying for Derrick at home:
Lea Vanessa Uh, Derrick's Older sister
"People say that why did they took so long and why didn't they go looking for him. People think that we didn't love him but we loved him very much and my brother used to do that routine that on Fridays he get pays and he used to hide from us. He was like mischievous and go around and then we would go around asking have you seen him? have you seen him? because he got affected by a past relationship."
But try as they might to help Derek with his drinking nothing had worked and by Sunday when he hadn't managed to come home His mother knew that something had gone terribly wrong.
Lea Vanessa Uh, Derrick's Older sister
"When police were coming my mom was shouting because she had a feeling that something happend but I told my mom he is okay I have hopes. that people were mistaken that it was not him, not my brother and I told her mom have faith, have faith mom and then she was like I do, I do and then I was like it's not my brother it's not him and when the police came they said, they came around 6:30 and they said that they needed an I.D. and I was like for what and they told us that we have the news that, that he died and I was like what? what happened and then I was hoping the way that. something that maybe he got stabbed, maybe he was in critical condition and that I would see him for the last time that I would be able to. hold his hand and pray for him."
But that's something this elder sister never got to do because by the time she saw Derrick he was dead and completely unrecognizable.
Lea Vanessa Uh, Derrick's Older sister
"The way he looks is not the way that we remeber him. He was handsome and had a beautiful smile and then now the way I look at him even his color is. not the right one because he got burned his body was like on an oven his color,his face completley changed."
"When we reached to the station it was only for us to go and recognize my brother's body and then my mom and I wanted to see him and then they didn't allow us only my dad and then I don't know. what they exactly told my dad so I got close and I asked him what happened to my brother and then he said, he got suffocated in the van and he said the driver handed in the car and forgot that someone was inside and I asked him so my brother got killed here and they told me no. And then I told the police so you are teeling me that if someone is locks you that you stay there you will die."
And Vanessa says she didn't hold back, and let the cops have it for the terrible injustice they'd done to her brother.
Lea Vanessa Uh, Sister of the deceased
"Each of one you have a son and has a daughter or a bother, a family member but you guys forgot that when you. bring in people you like to treat the peole like animals forgetting that you have family, fforgetting you have children and everyone, everyone has a family member that gives trouble, that gives trouble but you still love that family member even if he give trouble and me and mom we used to pray for him because we go to church believing that. god would change him."
Cherisse Halsall:
"Do you think that Derrick in the darkness and the heat of that van prayed?"
Lea Vanessa Uh, Sister of the deceased
"Yes, I do believe so. because we serve a god of power and even if that. van was dark I believe that that was the moment that the light of our prayers reached inside that van and then my God gave him the encounter that I asked him to give my little brother the experience to get to know him and I know he reppented because we asked God for mercy."
"I know that his soul is safe I have that consolation that maybe his body is taken but we have his soul for the kingdom of heaven."
But despite what for this family is an ultimate consolation there is still understandable outrage at the utter terror that Derrick must have felt in what became his last hours.
Lea Vanessa Uh, Sister of the deceased
"The way he died was really cruel because he suffered, he suffered and he suffered a lot, a lot, a lot, and I just imagine how he was remembering us shouting for us maybe wanting to tell us that he loved us. Maybe saying that he didn't want to die that way that it was hurting a lot, and the thing is that our family just wants justice for my little brother because he suffered a lot."
