Suspect charged in Royal City murder

"It's very hard to solve murders when Mexican nationals are involved because it's so easy (for them) to skedaddle," he said.

Staff reports
September 24, 2007

Grant County authorities have arrested and charged a suspect in the apparent murder of an unidentified man whose body was found in a blood-spattered van Sept. 15.

Royal City resident Felix Cortez Lopez, 20, was charged with first-degree murder today, after police tracked him to an apartment last week in Mt. Vernon, a city in the northwest corner of Washington. Cortez Lopez, whose bail was set at $1 million, is expected to enter a plea Oct. 1 in Grant County Superior Court, said Deputy Prosecutor Ed Owens.

Police believe Margarito Torres Lopez, 27, also was at the murder scene, said Chief Criminal Deputy John Turley, of the Grant County Sheriff's Office. Torres Lopez is still at large and has a warrant out for his arrest.

"At this point, I believe the warrant is still good for material witness, and depending on what (investigators) know now, he could be charged with accessory" to murder, Turley said. "To what extent he participated, that's still unknown."

Luz Manuel Flores Ramirez, 26, who works at the same orchard as the suspects, gave police information on Cortez Lopez and Torres Lopez. Flores Ramirez was kept in jail while authorities traveled to Mt. Vernon to ensure he did not warn the other suspects, Turley said.

The case is complicated by the fact that the suspects and Ramirez are Mexican nationals, because often their identification documents are falsified, Turley said.

"It's very hard to solve murders when Mexican nationals are involved because it's so easy (for them) to skedaddle," he said.

On Sept. 15, a hunter came across a Mazda van outside Royal City and alerted a patrolling police officer. The officer found a man's body in the van, which was covered with blood spatters, according to a Grant County Sheriff's Office news release.

Grant County Coroner Jerry Jasman said last week that he was not able to identify the man during an autopsy, but said the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.

Police have only a possible first name for the victim, the release states.

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