Thread: Four Mexican Men Found Murdered In Ohio Apartment

Four Mexican Men Found Murdered In Ohio Apartment

www.local12.com

Mexican Brick layers Mudered In cincy
video
Police will work into the night to find new clues on the murders of four men at a local apartment complex.

The victims' bodies were found around 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Timber Ridge Apartments in Sharonville. Two of the men were brothers, another was their uncle and the fourth was their friend. The men's names had not been released as of late Thursday night. Investigators said there were signs of a struggle in the apartment. The door was also locked.

The men's boss called police when they didn't show up for work for several days. He initially didn't think that was unusual, because they said they needed to take a friend to Memphis. The men were brick layers for ABC Precision Masonry.

Police were not yet commenting as of late Thursday night on how the men were killed. However, Local 12 has learned the bodies were decomposing, and the men may have been dead for up to a week before they were found.

Officers are looking for one of the victim's vehicles. It's a purple, 1998 Plymouth Voyager minivan with Ohio license plate EFL6029.

The apartment manager is sending letters to residents, asking them to help police if they saw or heard anything.

If you have any information that can help police, call CrimeStoppers at (513) 352-3040.

The apartment manager is sending letters to residents, asking them to help police if they saw or heard anything.

Yeah sure. We had a killing of an illegal alien here. The news went out to interview the building's residents. Every one had moved before daylight.

Originally Posted by loservillelabor

The apartment manager is sending letters to residents, asking them to help police if they saw or heard anything.

Yeah sure. We had a killing of an illegal alien here. The news went out to interview the building's residents. Every one had moved before daylight.

This is going on as we speak, some one said this morning i.c.e. vans was already at the complex due to the large number of non english speaking resadents, But what’s the best part are the cops are having trouble communicating with others at the complex… We all know what that means… Ill update this when more comes out...

Oh yes Gregg keep us posted. This could get very interesting.

Slain man's van found

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20071214/NEWS01/712140441

4 victims stopped showing up for work about 9 days ago, employer says
BY EILEEN KELLEY | EKELLEY@ENQUIRER.COM, STEVE KEMME |

SKEMME@ENQUIRER.COM
Update: SHARONVILLE - Police found a purple van this morning they think may have been owned by one of the four men found stabbed to death Thursday in an apartment.

The purple Plymouth Voyager minivan was located about 9:45 a.m. in the 1500 block of East Kemper Road, about five miles from the crime scene, said Lt. John Cook, Sharonville police spokesman. The van is being towed away now.

It may be one of the few clues police have in the stunning quadruple homicide discovered Thursday morning when the men failed to show up for work for more than a week.

Sharonville police received an anonymous tip at 9:10 a.m. today the van was in the grocery store parking lot.

This is the only new development so far today in the murders that remain so much a mystery police still aren’t sure of the victims' identities. It may take days to identify them, Cook said.

The four victims lived a sparse existence, sleeping on mattresses on the floor with little other furniture in an apartment that fetches about $700 a month.

For the past two years, the men could be seen getting into a car and dutifully heading off to work before 8 a.m. each day.

Around the large complex, they were simply known as "The Mexicans."

The routine that many here became accustomed to stopped more than nine days ago when the men stopped showing up for work.

Thursday, Sharonville police, who were asked to do a wellness check on the four men, found themselves in the middle of a crime scene.

The bodies of the men were found in their apartment, heavily decomposed.

One was found in the hallway inside the unit, the others in two of the bedrooms.

The deaths of the men at the Timber Ridge Apartments were homicides, Hamilton County Coroner O'dell Owens said.

Owens did not release the identities of the men but said they were Hispanic. Both he and police suggested that it would take time to track down families.

"We have quite a mess on our hands," Lt. Cook said.

"These guys were pretty loyal workers, and it was unusual that they would not be there at work."

There were signs of violence and struggle, police said. Early indications suggest that the men were stabbed to death, not shot.

The deaths are the second, third, fourth and fifth homicides for the city of roughly 14,000 residents this year. Last year was homicide-free.

"I just don't know what to say," said Adam Ficke, 22, a resident who arrived home from work from his job as a cook at Bob Evans to find the parking lot filled with television antennas, police and men in white protective suits.

"It's just so strange to come into my neighborhood and find out that something like this has happened," he said.

The men worked for Abc Precision Masonry & Concrete Inc. in Mason and hadn't shown up since Dec. 4. Abc co-owner Bryan McCurley said the men, whom he would not identify, worked for the small firm off and on for four or five years.

"They were excellent workers. We're grieving, and we're hurting," he said. "They were like family, that's why it hurts so much."

An odor had begun to alarm some neighbors, but many thought it was just a dead animal, police said.

Police were called Thursday by the masonry company to check on the men.

"It is clearly a quadruple homicide," Owens said. "There is no indication of a homicide-suicide."

Neighbors said they felt safe at the complex that also offers a clubhouse, swimming pool, volleyball court and playground. That safety factor was so strong for some that they admitted that they didn't even lock their doors in the day.

"We'll be sure to lock it now," Joyce Smith, 69, said. Smith and her husband, Thomas, have lived at the complex for 15 years.

"It's pretty horrifying. It makes you wonder if there's anyplace that's safe," Thomas Smith said.

Jim Minor, who lives across the hall, said he saw police arrive in the morning and shortly after saw four bodies removed.

"They had the door open, and I saw the blood inside," he said.

Minor said at least four people lived in the apartment, but he often saw more going in and out.

"They're quiet and kept to themselves," he said. "They'd just say 'hi' and that was about it."

Jennifer Hammond, 33, of West Chester is the on-scene manager of Timber Ridge apartments.

She and the rest of the residents of the 248-unit complex are stunned by the killings.

"They've just been great residents," she said.

She's sent a letter to the rest of the complex residents telling them to contact her or Sharonville police if they have questions or concerns about the four men killed there.

It was unclear whether all the victims lived at the same apartment, but one of their cars was in the parking lot.

Staff writers Jennifer Baker and Kimball Perry contributed to this story.
Print | Close Window | Copyright 2007, Enquirer.com

I can’t stand the way our local paper reports on these people turn folk lore into fact and crime into do good. This is a case of Drugs gone bad…
The ABC Brick should be brought up on charges… I’m wondering big time why that company won’t release the Identities... even to the police… I puta call into our local mason union just to see ???

Victims from same Mexican village

Four found dead in Cincinnati suburb haven’t been ID’d yet, coroner says
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CINCINNATI — Two of the four Latino construction workers who were found fatally stabbed and bludgeoned in their suburban apartment this week were brothers, and all were from the same village in Mexico, the Hamilton County coroner said.

However, it could take several days to identify the men, who apparently had been dead about a week before their bodies were found Thursday, Hamilton County Coroner O’dell Owens said.

Police found the bodies after an owner of the construction company Abc Precision Masonry & Concrete reported that one of his usually reliable employees had not shown up for work in several days.

Messages seeking further comment were left for Owens yesterday.

A minivan thought to be connected to the four workers was found Friday at Miscellaneous Rodriguez, a grocery store. Hector Rodriguez, the grocery owner, said he had noticed the vehicle parked there for several days but had no idea it might be connected to the killings.

An anonymous tip led police to the van, about 5 miles from the apartment crime scene, said Lt. John Cook, Sharonville police spokesman.

"Our best guess is that somebody drove it there and left it," he said. It is not likely one of the victims had driven it there, he said.

The victims, thought to be in their mid-20s, lived quietly at the Timber Ridge Apartments in Sharonville, sleeping on mattresses on the floor with little other furniture, Cook said.

"People I have had contact with said these guys kept pretty much to themselves, went to work and came home," Cook said. "It was a simple lifestyle, no wild parties or anything like that."

Police had not determined whether the four men had any relatives in the area, he said. Neighbors estimated that the men had been living in the apartment complex for about two years.

"We are having people call us and say, ‘Hey, I think that might have been my cousin,’ " Cook said. "But we haven’t shown anybody any pictures. We won’t do that until we get pictures from the coroner."

The bodies of two victims were found in a bedroom, another in a second bedroom and one in a hallway, police said. Cook said there was no sign of forced entry and the apartment door was locked.

Autopsies revealed the men died of beatings and stab wounds, but it is not yet clear what object caused the trauma, Owens said. The men had been dead a week to nine days, he said.

Toxicology results may take another week, Owens said.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/lo ... ml?sid=101

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /712150354

4 men were stabbed to death

By Joe Wessels
Post contributor

Four Hispanic men found dead in a Sharonville apartment Thursday were stabbed to death.

Police confirmed that the four adult men - whose identities still have not been released - were killed by a still unknown assailant or assailants.

It's possible that some of the victims were asleep when they were attacked, police said. And the assailants might have been known to them because there was no sign of forced entry into the Timber Ridge Apartment Homes unit where they were found.

"Personally, I don't believe there is somebody going around to apartments looking for trouble," Sharonville Lt. John Cook. "I think it was an isolated event, isolated to this particular apartment. I base that on the fact that the front door wasn't kicked in or anything like that."

Cook said police have had very few tips in the case, but thinks that might change once a positive identification is made of the four men and the names are released to the public. He expected their identities would be confirmed Friday night by Hamilton County Coroner O'dell Owens' office, but said police would not release their names over the weekend.

"Once we get them identified, it will be 'Would someone want to do this to your cousin or your brother?'" Cook said. "We are flying blind until we get them identified."

Cook said police have some idea of what happened and who might have committed the murders.

"We've got some ideas of what's going on, but nothing that I can report," Cook said. "We've got some stuff they can work on but nothing we can come out on yet."

A 1998 purple Plymouth Voyager minivan that police had been looking for was located Friday morning at the Miscellaneous Rodriguez Mexican grocery store, located a few miles from the crime scene. Cook said they located the van after a passerby spotted it and phoned police, who had the vehicle towed to their headquarters so investigators could comb through it for evidence.

"I am assuming someone drove it there," Cook said.

The grocery's owner said the car had been there for a few days and he was thinking of calling to have it towed.

"It was a couple days ago that I realized that the car has been there for a little while," Hector Rodriguez told WCPO. "So, I realized that we are going to have to call somebody to tow it because nobody moves it."

Police were called to the apartment after supervisors from Abc Precision Masonry & Concrete in Mason reported the four men had not shown up to work since the preceding week.

"Nobody really knows these guys," Cook said. "All these guys did was work. They weren't out partying."

My bet is that this was drug or human smuggling related. Someone either didn't pony up to pay for or smuggle drugs from Mexico or owed some coyote some big money.

Fayette Drug Task Force aids in coke, meth bust worth millions
Tue, 12/11/2007 - 6:01pmBy: Ben Nelms

Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies Dec. 7 display approximately $10 million in cash, 111 kilograms of cocaine, 17 pounds of methamphetamine and 32 weapons seized in 18 drug raids in metro Atlanta recently. Fayette Sheriff’s Drug Task Force participated in the raids.

An eighth floor conference room at the Richard Russell Federal Building in Atlanta Dec. 7 could have doubled as a bank if it were not for the fact that the millions of dollars on display were part of ongoing operations intended to take a bite out of two Mexican drug cartels.

A large group of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies watched as U.S. Attorney David Nahmias announced the results of the coordinated multi-million dollar drug and cash seizures made in the metro area during the last week.

One of those near the podium was Fayette County Sheriff’s Drug Task Force (DTF) Capt. Mike Pruitt. For Pruitt, the occasion was another reminder of the reality that drugs originating in Mexico more than 2,000 miles away have a direct connection to the smaller communities, like Fayette County, that lie beyond the shadow of the Gold Dome.

“This is what we’ve been talking about. You can’t fight the drug problem in this country by sitting back and chasing street dealers on every corner selling street dope. There’s a supply and demand that is coming in from outside the country, coming in here,â€