The San Pedro Police and community this morning are in search of a missing woman who is lost at sea on the leeward side of Ambergris Caye after an afternoon that was suppose to be a pleasurable one.
According to Police Reports, on Tuesday, February 28, 2017, 39-year-old Marvin Hazim Yono, American National of Bloomfield Michigan reported that he and another friend were at an area located west of Ambergris Caye which is known as “Secret Beach” on separate jet skis . Around 2:30 p.m. he invited a 29-year-old Rickilee Michelle Mercer, American accountant of Texas, USA for a ride.
Mr. Yono reported that they left on the jet ski heading west from “Secret Beach” when they both fell off the jet ski. He then swam to shore and the last sighting of Mercer was when she was swimming towards the jet ski.
The crowd that was enjoying an afternoon at Secret Beach became a search party as the daylight started to fade. Some islanders reported seeing a woman on a jet ski drifting towards Cayo Espanto, a few miles so of Secret Beach, but as of this morning the search party deployed last night was not able to locate the woman.
Police and the Belize Coast Guard head the search and investigations into the incident continue.
UPDATE 7P.M. March 1, 2017
-photo via Facebook
Police reports that the lifeless body of Rickilee Michelle Mercer was discovered this afternoon at 1:30p.m. around the vicinity of Blackadore Caye with apparent injuries to her neck. Her body has since been transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital in Belize City awaiting a postmortem examination. Investigations continue into this matter.
UPDATE March 21, 2017
A post-mortem examination on the body of American National Rickilee Michelle Mercer has confirmed her cause of death as drowning and no foul play is being suspected. Consiquently, the case has since been closed.
