A famous Colorado real estate developer was found shot and dead in Belize over the weekend. According to local news sources, cops believe it may have been the work of an angry business partner who did the killing.
Local news station Breaking News Belize (BNB) said that Boris Mannsfeld, 56, was found face down on the ground in his yard on Friday night with a bullet wound to the back of his head.
The killing happened at The Villas at Cocoplum in Maya Beach, a community of high-end villas that Mannsfeld helped build in the small Central American country. He opened his own construction company in Belize called Boris Mannsfeld and Associates in 2010. This was four years after he and his family moved there permanently.
BNB reported that Police Commissioner Chester Williams told reporters that Mannsfeld’s death has all the signs of a planned hit, but that the exact reason for the killing is still unknown.
The news source said that cops found Mannsfeld’s wallet, a loaded 9mm gun, and a spent shell casing near his body.
Williams said, “It looks like it will be a hit.”
“We are looking at the business transactions that Mr. Mannsfeld may have with other individuals, with our view to see if we will be able to close in on a possible motive and perhaps suspect,” he said.
The police chief also said that Frik De Meyere, one of the suspects, was arrested but had not yet been charged as of Monday.
According to records, De Meyere used to work at Mannsfeld’s and was questioned about the murder of businessman Ricardo Borja in 2023. Borja and Darren Taylor, who died in 2024, both worked for Mansfield’s business.
“It will not be wrong for one to assume that there may be some connection there, and we’re looking at that possibility,” he said.
A local news source called Amandala reported at the time that before he died, Borja said that De Meyere was behind a land fraud scheme and had set up a meeting with a lawyer, a real estate agency, and the government’s special crime unit to present evidence against De Meyere. He was killed before he could say anything, though.
BNB also says that in an email from January, Mannsfeld talked about a “massive fraud case” involving millions of dollars in stolen goods and said that he was involved in a $3.9 million lawsuit against a former business partner.
Williams agreed that Mannsfeld’s death might have something to do with the deaths of Borja and Darren Taylor.
Fox News Digital tried to get more information from the Belizean cops but did not hear back.
The business website for Mannsfeld has a profile of him that talks about how he “fell in love” with the country on his first visit in 1992 and then made it his “barefoot paradise” in 2006. He worked as a real estate agent in the U.S. for 10 years before going to Belize, a country that used to be a British colony and is now surrounded by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south.
He is said to like many things, such as endurance mountain biking, road biking, and snow skiing.
The company that Mannsfeld runs sells houses, land plots, and other real estate in Belize. The report also says that Mannsfeld worked on hotel projects, a concrete business, and a green energy business.
This news comes after three American women were found dead at a beach lodge in Belize from what may have been an overdose.
