As we told you at the top of the newscast, a post mortem on what is believed to be the body of Orange Walk tax-man Hugo Moreno proved inconclusive as to identity and cause of death. That was established this evening, but this morning in Orange Walk, Monica Bodden spoke to police about the case – and in the afternoon, the media tracked down his devastated wife in the city. Here's the story:
Monica Bodden reporting
42 year old taxi Hugo Moreno was found dead in the trunk of his burnt up taxi cab just after 2 yesterday afternoon -
His white Dodge was located in a sandpit at the back of Carmelita Village.
Inspector Julius Cantun - Acting Deputy Commander, Orange Walk Police
"In regards to the missing person's report, concerning Mr. Hugo Estrada Moreno - yesterday at around 11:45am, Orange Walk police received information concerning information about a vehicle seeing burnt in an area about a mile and a half on the outskirts of Carmelita Village. As a result of that information - Orange Walk police visited the area and about 2pm - they came across the said vehicle which was subsequently identified as that belonging to the missing person, Mr. Hugo Moreno. In the vehicle what appeared to be the charred remains of a human body that was stuck inside the trunk of the said car, as a result the scenes of crimes technicians visited the scene whereby they processed that scene and the suspected human body was retreived and transported to the Orange Walk town hospital and the vehicle was removed and brought to the Orange Walk police station pending investigation. I must mention that the post mortem is scheduled for today at 1pm at Belize City whereby we will try to establish the identity of the person and the cause of death of that said individual. At this time the investigation is still young, it's in the initial stages and all formalities are taking place as we speak and we have contacted our counter parts in the different districts. We have some persons that we are looking at that may be able to assist us in this investigation."
And even though there is speculation that Morreno was involved in a drug deal that had gone bad, police could not confirm.
Inspector Julius Cantun
"At this point in time we have not established a motive for this crime - we are not leaving any theories unchecked so we are following all leads that we get in terms of the last whereabouts of this person and of course the detectives are out in the field as we speak, interviewing people."
Today Moreno's body was transported to the KHMH morgue for a post mortem examination to determine his cause of death.
While at the morgue his wife told the media that she strongly believes her husband was murdered for his money while doing his taxi runs on Saturday night.
Jules Vasquez
"Do you have any idea why they would burn him up in his car like that?"
Magda Moreno - Wife of Deceased (Translated)
"It can only be that it was for money because he had money along with him - about $500 - because of Fiesta Rama he left at that hour to do taxi runs."
There is speculation that Moreno was seen transporting 5 fishermen that day. he was last seen by his family on Saturday at 12:40 pm when he left home to pick up his daughter at a local cultural event.
Jules Vasquez
"I've heard a story that he had some fishermen with him. Do you all know anything about that?"
Magda Moreno
"I've heard the same thing - as a matter of fact, the police has said so as well and that perhaps he got a call while he was waiting for his daughter to go do a run and they told me that apparently he went from Paraiso en-route to Corozal."
As we reported, the post mortem was inconclusive as to the cause of death.
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