http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/13290342.htm

Posted on Wed, Nov. 30, 2005

Illegal alien is suspect in killing
Man is second person arrested in Twinsburg woman's death
By Ed Meyer
Beacon Journal staff writer

TWINSBURG - Federal agents and city police have arrested a second person in the July slaying of 28-year-old Sejal K. Patel.

Twinsburg police identified the suspect as Vijay V. Patel, 35. He was charged this week in Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court with complicity to commit aggravated murder.

Norton Police Sgt. Chris Noga said the man is from India and is not related to either the victim or the first person charged, Rupal Patel, 31, who was living in a Columbia Woods apartment in Norton at the time of her arrest in September.

She also has been charged with complicity to commit aggravated murder, according to Summit County Common Pleas Court records, and is awaiting trial.

Noga said Vijay Patel was in the United States illegally and was arrested on Nov. 15 in Milford Township, Pa., where he had been working at a gas station. He was taken into custody there by Twinsburg police detectives, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Pennsylvania State Police.

Noga said federal agents took Vijay Patel to Pennsylvania's York County Prison, where he is being held pending a court hearing for extradition to Ohio.

The victim's body, wrapped in a blanket, was found July 2 in the rear cargo compartment of a black 2001 Mercedes sport utility vehicle in the DaimlerChrysler Stamping Plant parking lot on state Route 82, according to police and court records.

Sejal Patel's death was ruled a homicide by the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office. She had been beaten and strangled, apparently with some type of soft ligature, Noga said.

Her husband, identified in court and police records as Chetankumar P. Patel, had reported her missing July 1 after she did not show up for work at the family business, a Mr. Hero restaurant on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Noga said.

The sergeant declined to comment on how the two defendants were allegedly involved in the murder, saying the case remains under investigation.

Twinsburg detectives began to examine Vijay Patel as a suspect in August, Noga said.

``Because he was in the country illegally, he was sort of like a ghost. All we had was a first name, and no other information than that,'' the sergeant said.

``After Rupal (Patel) was arrested in September, we discovered a few other things. One was that she and Vijay had been together at the Acme in Norton and were stopped by store security for shoplifting,'' he said.

Investigators then were able to obtain Vijay Patel's full name and photographs from store security personnel and Norton police, Noga said.

After establishing Vijay Patel's identification, Noga said, investigators received tips of his possible whereabouts in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Twinsburg detectives notified authorities in those three areas to be on the lookout for him, and a detective in Quakertown, Pa., near Milford Township, reported seeing Vijay Patel working at the gas station where he was eventually arrested, Noga said.

The sergeant said earlier that the woman charged, Rupal Patel, had worked for the victim's husband at one of his other businesses, a Barberton Food Mart.

Noga said Chetankumar Patel, the victim's husband, is not considered a suspect.

According to Twinsburg police records, Chetankumar Patel first notified the department, by phone, that his wife was missing late in the afternoon of July 1.

Although a Twinsburg patrolman found Sejal Patel's body in the rear cargo compartment of the Mercedes, her husband was the first to notice the vehicle in the plant parking lot. Chetankumar Patel then called the department to tell police the vehicle was there, and the patrolman responded.

Noga said there might be one additional arrest in the case, but investigators do not have a timetable.