A resident of California has been taken into custody and accused of murder after hikers encountered the corpse of his potential murder victim. The remains of a plumber with multiple bullet wounds was discovered in October, four months after he had gone missing in July.
The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, headed by Erik Nasarenko, has announced that 37-year-old Rotherie Foster is suspected of murdering 35-year-old Jose Velasquez, a colleague of his. His alleged motive is related to monetary gain.
Foster is now facing serious criminal charges, including eight counts of identity theft, two counts of forgery, being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and multiple prior strike charges.
Velasquez, originally from Honduras, moved to California in 2016 and made a living as a plumbing contractor in Simi Valley. In 2021, he obtained a general contractor’s license and relocated to Camarillo.
On July 27, 2022, Velasquez went out to have drinks with some friends in Thousand Oaks and informed his family of his plans. Three days later, his disappearance was reported. On August 1, his work van was located four miles away from the Janss Marketplace shopping center, however Velasquez himself was nowhere to be found.
On October 3rd, a married couple stumbled upon the body of a missing plumber while on a hike in the Santa Monica Mountains along Mulholland Highway. The Acorn reported that the body was wrapped in a tarp and fastened with a bungee cord.
An investigation by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office revealed that the death was the result of multiple gunshot wounds.
Foster was apprehended on Friday in relation to Velasquez’s homicide, yet he has been in jail since mid-August. At that time, police arrested him for identity theft charges, some of which were dropped in November.
As soon as the charges were dropped, he was re-arrested for having a weapon- a loaded gun with an extended magazine- in his car. He is currently being held on a $2 million bail and is due to appear in court on Wednesday afternoon at the Ventura County Superior Court.