A grim discovery in Carmelita Village, northern Belize’s Orange Walk District, has left a small community reeling after a local sports organizer was found murdered in an early morning search carried out by his own family on October 13, 2026.
Wilson Perez, a well-known figure in the area who served as president of the New Horizon Sporting Club and recently helped organize the regional Orange Walk Under-13 Mundialito youth football tournament alongside the Orange Walk Town Council, left his family home around 10:30 p.m. the previous night. He told family members he was heading to the village football ground, but never returned to his residence.
By early Wednesday morning, concerned relatives launched their own search for the missing man, a search that ended in devastating tragedy when they located his body in an isolated area of the village. Preliminary accounts from the search party note Perez’s body bore multiple severe chop wounds, and unconfirmed reports also suggest the body was partially burned – a detail law enforcement has declined to confirm while evidence processing remains ongoing.
In an on-the-record briefing following the discovery, Assistant Commissioner Hilberto Romero, head of Belize’s National Crimes Investigations Branch, outlined the early stages of the probe for reporters. “Police were called to an area in Carmelita Village where a body had been found. Police responded where they met family members who had conducted a search in the area for a person, namely Wilson Perez,” Romero stated. “Information is that Perez left his house last night around 10:30 p.m. saying he was going to the football field in Carmelita and did not return. This morning they became concerned and a search was conducted and his body was found with chop wounds. The scene is being processed at this time and we will carry out a full investigation into this report.”
Reporters pressed Romero on a series of unanswered questions hanging over the high-profile killing, including whether the killing stemmed from any form of vigilante community action over prior allegations against Perez, whether the victim was killed at the discovery site or killed elsewhere and dumped, and whether Perez had any prior interactions with police that could offer a motive.
At this early stage of the investigation, Romero confirmed no prior official reports against Perez have been identified by police, and no definitive conclusions can yet be drawn about the circumstances of the killing. “We do not know at this time, again the body was just found and we are just processing the scene at this time,” Romero said, adding that investigators will first analyze all evidence recovered from the crime scene before drawing any conclusions about how the killing unfolded.
The violent death of a popular community-focused youth sports leader has sent shockwaves through the small Carmelita Village community, with investigators now working to piece together the timeline of Perez’s final hours and identify any suspects connected to the brutal attack.