Cellphone expert traces revenge murder suspects' every step

Manuel Marin, Roberto Isaac near one another throughout day murder took place

MIAMI – Camilo Salazar vanished on the morning of June 1, 2011.

The Coconut Grove businessman had dropped off his then 3-week-old infant at the office of his wife, Daisy Lewis, for a feeding.

He was supposed to return 45 minutes later.

Salazar was never heard from again, officials said.

One day later, investigators found Salazar’s badly burned body near Okeechobee Road and Northwest 138th Avenue in a remote area in the Everglades. Autopsy results revealed Salazar’s hands and feet had been bound, his throat had been slit and his pelvic area had been burned.

Salazar was the victim of a murder-for-hire plot devised by Presidente Supermarket owner Manuel Marin, after Marin learned of Salazar’s affair with his then-wife, Jenny Marin, investigators said.

The three men allegedly hired by Marin were Alexis Vila Perdomo, a former Olympic bronze medalist and MMA fighter; Ariel Gandulla, a former MMA fighter and sometime training partner of Vila Perdomo; and Roberto Isaac.

Vila Perdomo and Isaac are facing second-degree murder charges for the kidnapping and murder of Salazar.

On Wednesday, Vila Perdomo and Isaac looked on as an independent cellphone geolocation expert shared location information from the day of Salazar’s disappearance and murder from 2011.

Starting between 10 and 11 a.m. on the morning of Salazar's abduction, Gandulla and Isaac were in the area of Salazar’s home and his wife’s office, arrest records said.

This was also affirmed after investigators found one of Gandulla’s fingerprints on Salazar’s Chevrolet Trailblazer, which was found a half-block from the office of Salazar’s wife.

From 11 a.m. to noon, various cellphone towers picked up pings from the phones of Gandulla and Isaac as the pair traveled north through Miami-Dade County, allegedly with Salazar.

Around 3:30 p.m., cellphone location data showed that Marin had shown up for the first time in the vicinity of Isaac near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, reports said.

About 30 minutes later, Salazar’s phone, along with Isaac and Marin, showed that all three were in the same area.

Isaac and Marin continued to ping the same towers along the same route south and west through Miami-Dade throughout the late afternoon, investigators said. By this time, Gandulla was no longer traveling with Marin and Isaac and was believed to have returned to his home, investigators said.

At 5:02 p.m., Marin’s Sunpass records showed a receipt from the southbound exit of Okeechobee Road off the Florida Turnpike, which was approximately 3 miles from where Salazar’s body was found.

A short time later, Isaac and Marin’s phones pinged the same tower closer to where Salazar’s body was found on Okeechobee Road.

Authorities discovered Salazar’s body at 6:30 p.m.

By 6:38 p.m., Marin’s vehicle was 13 miles south at the Bird Road exit off the Florida Turnpike.

At 7 p.m., investigators believe that Isaac and Marin drove to Gandulla’s residence and Salazar’s phone once again pinged a cellphone tower.

Based on more Sunpass receipts and cellphone location information, authorities believed that Marin returned to his home in Lighthouse Point that evening. 

Vila Perdomo was in Las Vegas, cellphone records indicated, though call records revealed several calls to him, and between all four suspects throughout the day.

On Tuesday, Gandulla testified against his alleged conspirators. Gandulla made a plea deal with state prosecutors, agreeing to a three-year kidnapping charge in exchange for his testimony.

Marin is not expected to go on trial until sometime next year.

On Wednesday afternoon, the state medical examiner began to testify They are believed to be the state prosecutor's final witness.


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