Tonight, a feeling of both grief and relief hangs over Port Loyola after 17 year old Alwin Marin's body was found today.
It's exactly one week after he and his friend Jaheil Westby were last seen. Tonight, both are confirmed dead, murder victims. Their bodies were found in the same area, but hundreds of feet apart - in deaths that are both tragedy and mystery.
7News was on the scene, in the bush south of the Port of Belize as his body was brought out. Jomarie Lanza reports.
Patricia Cardinez was between tears and relief today - as the search for her son came to an end, a week after his disappearance.
The body of 17-year-old Alwin Marin Jr was found roughly 1,000 feet away from where the body of his friend Jaheil Westby was found Friday morning. Police believe the two were together when they came under attack and that Alwin may have been injured - but not fatally - and dashed away from his attackers, only to end up in a desolate area where he could not get any help, which is where he expired.
It was a grim procession of police and crime scene technicians that brought out the teenager's body this morning. They were then joined by the family and the large group of neighbors, friends and relatives who had also joined the search. Family members claim that the odor of decay and the swirl of vultures tipped them off and led them to look further into the bushes. His mother never stopped looking for him, and she was the one who found him.
Patricia Cardinez, Mother of deceased
"Well I find my son, it's me who found my son. My son looked black, he looked black, done decompose, lone worm and this head how his head was shaped, his head was small like a horse shape."
Jules Vasquez: "So you believe they killed him back here from last week Thursday and you just found him?"
Patricia Cardinez, Mother of deceased
"Yes I believe, I believe so."
Jules Vasquez: "Is there any sense of peace for you now that you found him and you can have a burial for him I know you expected that he was dead"
Patricia Cardinez, Mother of deceased
"Well like how I found him, like how I found my son if feel good now how I found my son now because I can put my son to rest now. And I feel that I can sleep better now you know thanks to God that answered my prayers and the people them in the area, thank god they came to help me."
Dressed in her son's shirt, Cardinez says she never lost hope that she would find him and finally get the closure she needed. She strongly believes her son's life was not worth taking over a horse and a confrontation.
Patricia Cardinez, Mother of deceased
"Till I find him, til I find him I never gave up why would I give up? And I said I would find my son and God led me. See what I have on my son's shirt see, this is my son's shirt, this shirt that he wears."
Jules Vasquez: "Why do you think they killed your son and who do you think killed him?"
Patricia Cardinez, Mother of deceased
"Well I, how my son died? He died because of a horse, because of a horse my son is a boy who goes and comes back and my son won't stay so many days, so many days out"
Jules Vasquez: "So you think they killed him because someone wanted his horse or something? so what did this represent to him? Why did he have the horse?"
Patricia Cardinez, Mother of deceased
"Well they usually use the horse, they usually use the horse because the horse, everyone uses the horse right. Yes but at the same time he went to get the horse and had a hard talking with the person who had the horse."
And in the days of searching for her son Cardinez says police still continued to accuse her of hiding him.
Patricia Cardinez, Mother of deceased
"It makes no sense for an animal, we are humans and we have life God gives life but he doesn't take life, it's rough. Like how now, like how I find my son so who killed my son? Who killed my son now? And when I was at home at my house police is running up in, saying they have information, saying that I am hiding my son, how will I hide my son? When I am on the media still looking for my son how will I hide my son?"
