After over 48 hours lost at sea, 58 year old Cecil Lewis' body was found this morning. As we told you yesterday, he was reportedly consuming alcohol on a barge headed for Caye Chapel. Another worker on the boat said he fell asleep and didn't notice Lewis was missing until they arrived on land.
However, pieces of the story aren't adding up for Lewis' family, and they're not ready to rule out foul play just yet.
Our news team met them at the Coast Guard Base, as they awaited the arrival of Lewis' body. Courtney Menzies spoke to his sister and has this story.
On Sunday night, 58-year-old Cecil Lewis boarded a barge headed for Caye Chapel. He was supposed to spend the night working with Sutherland Septic, but something happened to him before he got there.
He somehow fell off the barge and has been missing since then. His sister said his family immediately launched a search party.
Bernadine Lewis, Sister of Deceased
"My nephews went out on the boat at 12:00 the same night when they got the message and they came in 6:00 the morning. When they came in 6:00 I was enroute to my mom so I said, what's the update? They said aunty, we roamed the whole area from out there up to Caye Chapel, they roamed all over until 6:00 the morning, they came home to get a little rest and to fuel up again and they went out."
"I went home and I called Mr Josh Marin in the evening, he's the owner of the barge, and I asked him, Mr Marin, what time did you receive the call? He said between 11:30 and 12."
"He went out there from midnight, 1:00 in the morning, and was on a vessel with coast guard and when he came in, he got off and then coast guard went back and they had about two or three vessels out there looking for him. I had my cousins, my nephews, they were out there, we had a lot of boats out there roaming the sea from top to bottom, we even had somebody with a drone that went out there and they couldn't find anything."
It wasn't until this morning that his body was located. And while the family is awaiting the results of a postmortem, his sister suspects foul play.
Bernadine Lewis, Sister of Deceased
"My brother fell off a boat before in Turneffe Island area and he survived that and he found himself back to where he was, his base. So for them to say that my brother went missing between 8 and 11:30 or 12:00 and nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything, it doesn't sound right."
"Only one person that was on the vessel said he drop off so why the next person didn't stop, wake up the person who is sleeping and say, we have to turn back because the man fell off."
"What I saw from my brother is the side of his head and you can see only skull, no hair, anything on him. That was just from where I could identify him, his boots were still on, his wallet was in his pocket, his shirt was on, his pants was on, only his dentures were out of his mouth, between his feet."
But while Lewis has decided to leave that part up to the police, she also added that the last time she saw him, he was acting strange.
Bernadine Lewis, Sister of Deceased
"Me and my brother had a chat on Friday, I saw him on Saturday but I didn't get to speak with him. He was in a vehicle going and then they pass me again but my brother still did not hail me. My brother in law said he did him the same thing, I said, that sounds strange, that's not Sheck."
"He called his son before he left, his oldest son Jessie and told him that he is going to the cayes to work, he will come back in tomorrow to go to the farm to paint Landa's grave. That was the last chat my nephew had with his father."
And the day he was supposed to paint his daughter's grave was the same day he was reported missing.
He leaves behind five other children.
