7 News Belize

Dean Bennett Dead, Brother Daniel Missing
posted (September 14, 2017)
Last night we told you that police needed the community's help to determine the identity of a man who had been murdered and dumped in the Macal River. He floated up to the surface on Tuesday afternoon.

Well, one Santa Elena family only needed to hear the police give the physical description of his tattoo and other identifying marks to know that it was their loved one, 20 year old Dean Bennett.

According to the family, it seems that sometime in the last few days, someone settled a score with him - by stabbing him to death.

As Courtney Weatherburne found out - it's a heavy blow for his family - because his 18 year old brother Daniel disappeared in March and now, Dean is confirmed dead. Here is that story.

Courtney Weatherburne reporting
From the murky Macal River water to a hole in the ground at the Santa Elena cemetery. That's the tale of a tragic end to Dean Bennett's life. His body was found on Tuesday afternoon. Bennett was stabbed and thrown in the river near the New Santa Elena/San Ignacio Bridge. According to police, his body was badly decomposed and they had to bury him yesterday without the family - a decision his relatives aren't happy about.

Salucila Jimenez, Mother
"They say they done bury my son, they already bury the body that they found. Madas, the picture that we saw this morning, the picture didn't show that the body was really decomposed."

Courtney Weatherburne, reporter
"You didn't even get to see your son's body for the last time."

Salucila Jimenez, Mother
"No."

So now they are trying to work with the police to give Bennett a proper burial. But even after they lay him to rest, they have to live with the haunting reality of his murder.

According to Jimenez, Bennett left her house with a bag of clothes on Saturday morning. He usually sleeps out so she didn't think anything of it. Bennett was also seen at the Carnival in Belize City but no one saw him after Sunday night. Jimenez believes that Bennett's execution had something to do with a 2016 stabbing at Blue Angels.

Salucila Jimenez, Mother
"He had a lot of enemies and a lot of them were behind him. Two weeks on the 27th, they beat him up. They chopped him on his left hand and they stabbed him."

Courtney Weatherburne, reporter
"When you say he had a lot of enemies, what kind of stuff were he involved in?"

Salucila Jimenez, Mother
"One year September celebration which would be the 21st, there was a fighting downtown with Benjamin Pinelo and his uncle Mario Aldana - my son Daniel who was missing stabbed both of them. They got charges and that was the thing that started up and down."

Jimenez also thinks that those enemies killed her other son Daniel who went missing in March of this year. Daniel was also involved in the Blue Angels stabbing - He was defending his brother Dean.

According to Jimenez, it was a death foretold for both of her sons, as they were both threatened and hunted down. But nothing could prepare her for such a loss.

Salucila Jimenez, Mother
"He hugged me and he said mother I love you. You have to accept that Daniel already gone. I ask like this: I am your mother, you should trust me, something you know tell me and I am not going at the law I told him, who done with your brother's life at least I could know where they buried him so I could find the body. He just scream and he said no, I soon go too he told me and he said to me "I love you mother" - that was the last thing he told me. (Crying)"

When we called Jimenez this evening she told us police still hadn't given them permission to exhume Bennett's body. Again, Jimenez stresses that she and the family do not agree with police's decision to bury Bennett without the family's consent. She says based on the pictures she saw of her son, he wasn't that badly decomposed.

Daniel Bennett remains missing - and while his family fears he is dead - police say he is listed as a missing person.

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