Denver Developer Found Dead in White Lotus-Like Caribbean Mystery

The Colorado native owned a resort in Belize, where he once appeared on HGTV. The circumstances of his death could make for a show of its own.

By Jason Heller

February 24, 2025

Image: Boris Mannsfeld looking to the camera

Denver native Boris Mannsfeld was found dead on February 21 in Belize. YouTube

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If you've been watching The White Lotus, you're very familiar with murder mysteries involving wealthy characters set in beachfront resorts at gorgeous locales around the globe. The HBO show's third and current season takes place in Thailand, but if showrunner Mike White needs any inspiration for Season Four, he might do well to set his sights on Belize — by way of Denver.

As reported by the Denver Post, Boris Mannsfeld, a Colorado native and University of Denver alum, was found dead the night of Friday, February 21, in Maya Beach, Belize. He was 56.

What makes this tragic crime so White Lotus-esque, besides the subtropical backdrop? Well, Mannsfeld was murdered, according to local police, shot in the neck with a 9mm pistol. He was reportedly found facedown in a pool of blood in the exclusive luxury resort Cocoplum Villas, which he just so happened to own.

The White Lotus-isms don't stop there. The murder of Mannsfeld — who told Denver Colorado Luxury Magazine in January that he split his residence between Belize and Denver — comes after two unsolved murders of Mannsfeld's business associates in Belize.

According to Belize media, Ricardo Borja and Darren Taylor, who were connected to Mannsfeld through a $3.9-million fraud lawsuit, were killed in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

This 2023 promotional video of Mannsfeld's Cocoplum Villas could be a parody of The White Lotus, especially the scene where the tourists disembark the puddle-jumper. Mannsfeld was no stranger to television himself: In "Big Move to Belize," a 2016 episode of the HGTV real-estate reality show Caribbean Life, Mannsfeld helps a Minnesota family overcome the crushing hardship of affluent Midwestern life by steering them toward his own corner of oceanic paradise.

Authorities have not identified any suspects in Mannsfeld's killing, but they are investigating possible links between his murder and those of Borja and Taylor. There have been no arrests in those two slayings, either.

Sometimes art imitates life (or death), and sometimes it's the other way around.

Jason Heller is a staff writer at Westword. He's the author of the book Strange Stars: David Bowie, Pop Music, and the Decade Sci-Fi Exploded (Melville House/Penguin Random House), and has contributed to the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and NPR.org. His work has won a Hugo Award and a Colorado Press Association Award.

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