Jul 9, 2008 7:42 pm US/Eastern
Police: Suspect Targeted Gay Man For Murder
Police Feel Navarette Is Targeting Older Gay Men
They Fear He Will Do This Again
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
An arrest warrant has been issued for a Mexican national in the murder of Miami man earlier this year, after police say new DNA evidence links him to the case.
On January 3rd, a caretaker found the body of 68-year old Alexio Bello inside his ransacked El Lago Condominium in the 55-hundred block of Northwest 7th Street. Bello's murder was the first recorded homicide of 2008. During the investigation, Bello's friends told police he had recently befriended 21-year old Jorge Espinoza Navarrete a few days before his death. Navarrete, who grew up in Mexico, had recently moved to South Florida from North Carolina and Georgia.
Thursday a warrant was issued for Navarrete's arrest based on forensic evidence found at the scene; a blood finger print and DNA. Police say Navarrete is a gay gigolo.
"Clearly in this case, he befriended the victim as his MO," said Sgt. Confessor Gonzalez, with Miami Police. "He came across as a young harmless, young man, who obviously targeted the victim because he lived alone, an elderly male."
Gonzalez believes Navarette will do it again to other victims.
Perla Borelli said her uncle, who came from Cuba in the 1970s, was a kind man.
"He didn't deserve to die like that," said Perla Borelli as she cried hysterically. "I loved him like a father."
Borelli said Bello, who at one point had been married, had recently been in contact with his estranged daughter.
During their investigation, police determined Bello had been stabbed to death and found a pair of bloody shoes belonging to Navarrete near Bello's body.
Navarrete is described as being a white Latin male with shoulder length with wavy hair. Normally clean shaven, he was known to wear his hair in a pony tail.
Anyone with information on Navarrete's whereabouts is asked to call the Miami Police Department at (305)579 6640 or Miami Dade Crimestoppers at (305) 471-TIPS (8477).
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