A wide-ranging manhunt is underway in southern Belize for a suspect connected to the fatal shooting of 24-year-old Steve Lewis, a delivery worker from Dangriga Town whose decomposing body was found days after he went missing for a fake delivery job.
Lewis was last seen alive on the morning of the previous Monday, when he left his home to complete what he believed was a standard, routine delivery. The following day, his common-law wife filed an official missing person report with local authorities after he failed to return home.
Several days after Lewis disappeared, searchers located his remains along a rural feeder road branching off the Thomas Vincent Ramos Highway, close to the small community of Silk Grass Village. Investigators recovered an expended bullet shell at the scene, which has helped detectives narrow down the cause of death.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Stacy Smith confirmed to reporters that forensic evidence points to a gunshot wound as the likely cause of Lewis’s death. “Given that an expended shell was found on the scene, we suspect the cause to be a gunshot injury,” Smith stated in an official press briefing.
Prior to his disappearance, Lewis received a phone call requesting a delivery to Silk Grass Village, and investigators are now deep diving into all communications linked to that fatal request to identify the caller. “We are following up on the level of communication that he had during that time to see how that can assist with the investigation,” ASP Smith added.
Lewis’s mother, Suceli Lewis, shared new chilling details of her son’s final hours with local outlet News 5. She explained that an unknown young man contacted her son from Lake Land to arrange the delivery, and specifically instructed Lewis to bring a covered helmet with him for the job. “So my baby went to look for a cover up helmet and gone pick up the person and shoot out of Dangriga,” she said, confirming her son never made it back to town after leaving for the appointment.
Local law enforcement has not yet released a description of the suspect they are seeking, but have urged residents of the Dangriga and Silk Grass Village areas to come forward with any information that could help speed up the investigation and bring the perpetrator to justice.