Balthazar Lopez and Zeidy Orozco Found Dead and Decomposing in Consejo

Zeidy Orozco & Balthazar Lopez

Five murders in just over a month in Corozal have thrown the municipality in the grips of a murder spree.  Today, the bodies of a missing couple were found at around two o’clock.  Families of Zeidy Orozco and Balthazar Lopez had decided to discontinue their searches in the coming days, when the grim discovery was made. The bodies were found on the Consejo Road, several villages away from where the burnt vehicle of Orozco was found on Friday near Patchakan. Orozco and Lopez were last seen alive on Thursday night in Corozal Town hanging out by the sea.  And even as families members were bracing for the worst; today’s find has brought immeasurable pain.  News Five’s Isani Cayetano and Duane Moody report.

Duane Moody, Reporting

Thirty-four-year-old Zeidy Orozco and forty-two-year-old Balthazar Lopez were last seen alive exactly one week ago, on May thirty-first. In the immediate aftermath of their disappearance, both families launched search parties across Corozal District looking for their loved ones. And around two o’clock this afternoon, their worst fears were confirmed when the bodies of the missing couple were discovered off a feeder road along the Consejo Road. Aaron Babb, who was a member of the search party in the area, came up on the badly decomposed bodies.

Aaron Babb

Aaron Babb, Discovered Bodies

“I was coming out from my house to meet with the searching group again and I got a call from a friend who says that a dump truck was passing by, saw some vultures and saw something that appeared to be the bodies. Since they told me that, I hurry and came this side—me and another friend—and as I walked in there, I was sure it was them. I found the people from the transport department already by the area and went in and that’s the way they were found.”

Babb was a very close friend to Orozco, and says that he identified her body by the clothes she was last seen wearing when she and her boyfriend went missing. Exactly one week ago, Orozco picked up Lopez in her car from Machie Pool Spot after eight p.m. that night and then hung out near the seaside in the vicinity of Corozo Blues. But they never returned to their homes in San Andres and Calcutta villages and her car would be discovered torched in the outskirts of Patchakan Village. A massive search by families and friends as well as the police came up empty-handed; that is until today.

Aaron Babb

“This area we were here Monday. We actually went in, I would say all of the feeder roads on Monday and we still didn’t came up on it. I am a little surprise that it is not too far. We went in by this road and we didn’t find it and well maybe it’s because the vultures weren’t around and the smell wasn’t as strong as it is right now. But we missed on Monday and they got found today.”

Shortly after the discovery, police as well as B.D.F. personnel joined relatives and friends on the Consejo Road, before cordoning off the access to the dumpsite, to process the scene of yet another double murder in that northern jurisdiction. The Corozal Police have come under fire recently for their presumed lack of involvement in the search for the missing couple and their noticeable quiet in the early part of the investigation.

Dennis Arnold

Sr. Supt. Dennis Arnold, O.C., Corozal Police

“If we had the information certainly we would have shared it. But we had no information, just like the families; [they] had no information. All we had gotten that these persons were missing. Who took them? Where they went? Nothing was forthcoming from anyone. So if we had that information, I’m sure we would have shared it.”

Isani Cayetano

“In the wake of the report being made by the family, what were the efforts by the police department to either create a search party of its own to canvas the area in search of these people?”

Sr. Supt. Dennis Arnold

“Yes we did that. From the time that report was made Thursday….the report was made about a quarter to two. By three-forty-five, we had found the vehicle near Cristo Rey vehicle. From then police officers are out every day.”

The families tonight remain perplexed as to who would want Orozco and Lopez dead and why.  It is the second double murder in the past six weeks and five homicides since the start of May. Has Corozal become a dangerous municipality?

Aaron Babb

“Something is wrong. Something is really wrong here in Corozal cause years before you could walk ten, eleven, twelve in the night and you are not afraid of anyone or anything. Now with double murder, like you said…double and double, we have to be careful. Something is really wrong. And I think the police and the authorities need to do something.”

Duane Moody for News Five.