Tragic Discovery: 13-Year-Old Found Dead After Going Missing in Belize

13-year-old, Aaron Pop was found dead this weekend, after having gone missing on Saturday afternoon whilst playing outside in a field near his home.  According to the mom, Alva Pop, she was inside the house preparing to make flour tortillas, but when she looked out the window to check on Aaron, he was not in her line of sight.  The mother then went into the yard to look for the child, but she came up empty.  A few hours of scouring several areas in the Maya Center Village, Stann Creek District, the child was found in a creek, already dead.  The mother spoke with Love News indicating that she is uncertain what could have led the child to venture to the creek.

Harry Arzu, Stann Creek Correspondent: Where was the location that he was found ? 

Mother: “Right by the creek not far from where he was playing he just went down or maybe because there is a little bridge I say maybe he just fell off the bridge but I don’t know how my baby got there because my baby doesn’t go there. I don’t know how he got, I said maybe he followed somebody or maybe it’s the dog he followed I don’t know because he’s a special child, he’s not a normal person. I don’t know what to say because he doesn’t go around that side. He doesn’t go on the bridge, he doesn’t go by the creek side because he doesn’t go to the creek I don’t take him to the creek because he is afraid, he’s afraid of the water. He doesn’t like going to the creek he’s afraid. So I don’t understand how he reached there, why he went there or how because I don’t know because he’s not somebody that goes to the creek. He’s not someone to run on that bridge, he doesn’t go that side. All the while he was playing there in the field and everyone told me they saw him running and it’s something that he likes doing every day that is his little game with his dog in the field. I only saw the police when they took my baby’s body last night I haven’t seen them again,  I haven’t heard anything from them, nothing. I haven’t heard from the again.”

Chairman of Maya Center Village, Antonio Bolon, also spoke with our newsroom, extending caution to the parents of the village.  Bolon spoke of the creek’s bridge where Aaron was found, saying that the situation poses a danger to residents as the bridge needs repairs.

“Where will they send their kids to school and then they have to pass a bridge that is up by the creek on the opposite side or behind the water reservoir please take caution. Remember it’s raining, it’s slippery so the kids need to really be careful when they cross the bridge and there are parts of the board that really need to be replaced so I’m asking the public of Maya Center now to please take caution of it. I don’t want anything to happen if their kids fall or they fall in the water and they drown again because it’s a sad situation that we had a couple days ago. We’re not saying if Baby Aron fell from that bridge but it could have possibly. I have been requesting to the Ministry and to the Ministry of Works that I need urgent attention to the bridge because the answer I get is that the will come in but they’re not sure when just a promise I get every time and I believe this time the Minister will look into it clearly and seriously because the public is not happy with it. Many of the people of Maya Center really have a concern and they’re telling me as a chairman that I need to do something, that I need to deal with it, need to call to the attention of the minister, go to the media and tell them that we need assistance.”

Aaron had recently been taken out of school due to his special needs.