A Belize City community is on edge this week after a horrific violence left one teenager dead and another unaccounted for, turning a routine fishing trip into a double tragedy that has two families reeling.
On Thursday, 17-year-old Alwin Marin and 18-year-old Jaheil Westby left their homes on Jane Usher Boulevard, heading to a quiet, remote fishing spot behind the Dykes area at the Port of Belize. When neither teen returned home by nightfall, their loved ones raised the alarm, and search efforts launched overnight.
By Friday morning, those searches delivered devastating news: Westby’s body was recovered, bearing clear gunshot wounds. His family has now entered the early stages of mourning, but for Marin’s relatives, the agony of uncertainty stretches on. Four days after he vanished, the 17-year-old’s location remains unknown, and police have yet to uncover any solid clues to his fate.
In an emotional interview with local outlet News Five, Marin’s mother Patricia Cardinez said she is convinced her son’s disappearance is no random occurrence, and that the entire tragedy is rooted in a long-running neighborhood conflict over a brown horse. “My son doesn’t have trouble with anyone, but people have trouble with my son,” Cardinez said. “I believe it has to be someone close to my son, someone my son trusts. There was a young man waiting for my son around the corner with the horse. My son went to pick up that brown horse near Maria Shop, and I believe that young man he had the problem with is involved in this.”
Conflicts linked to horse ownership have been rising in visibility across Belize City in recent years, alongside growing populations of free-roaming horses in residential neighborhoods. Community leaders have repeatedly called for stricter regulation of the animals, after high-profile cases of animal abuse and inter-group violence tied to horse ownership. The 2024 attack on a horse named Oney in Port Loyola, where the animal was targeted solely due to its ownership by a rival group, remains a stark example of how these disputes can escalate.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Stacy Smith confirmed to reporters that the horse dispute is a core line of inquiry for investigators. “I can confirm that investigators are actively exploring that angle, and that there was indeed some form of prior disagreement over the horse,” Smith said. She added that multiple ground searches conducted by law enforcement across the city and the remote fishing area have so far turned up no trace of Marin.
Members of the Marin family organized independent search efforts over the weekend, combing the terrain where the two teens were last seen, but those searches also proved fruitless. The family is now pleading for additional resources from law enforcement to step up the search, and appealing directly to members of the public with any information to come forward.
Cardinez said her son’s habitual routine makes his extended disappearance all the more alarming. “My son always goes out and comes right back home – he’s not the kind of person to stay gone this long,” she explained. “I know something bad has happened. You trust your friends, think they’re on your side, but sometimes people get close just to get what they want from you. I believe this all started over that brown horse, that they got into a fight over it, and that’s what happened to my son. I won’t rest until I find my son, so I can give him a proper burial. Whoever is involved knows what happened – please, come forward and help this end.”
As the investigation into Westby’s murder continues and the search for Marin enters its fifth day, the family is calling on both police and community members to join the effort to bring answers to a case that has left the close-knit neighborhood shaken. This report was compiled from a broadcast transcript by News Five’s Paul Lopez.