2007 Murder Victim Identified - Luis FERNANDEZ

FERNANDEZ, GRAY, STRAIGHT, SHIELDS, RINEHART

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 8/15/2010 at 03:15:09

Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
August 11, 2010

Murder Victim Found Here in 2007 Has a Name - Luis Fernandez

A small cross has been placed in a field in Section 27 of Liberty township four miles northeast of Mount Ayr, where a body was discovered December 3, 2007.

Thanks to an online database system, authorities have a name for the body discovered by hunters two and a half years ago.

Luis FERNANDEZ is the name of the 20-year-old man killed and left in a Ringgold county field. A known member of the MS 13 gang, described by some as one of the most dangerous gangs in the country, FERNANDEZ had a checkered career in his young life.

In the meantime, 28-year-old Collins STRAIGHT remains jailed under murder charges and a list of additional charges recently filed.

According to Omaha, NE area authorities, FERNANDEZ was a methamphetamine dealer who may have owed a large drug debt.

FERNANDEZ, who was born March 18, 1987, had been deported to Mexico in December 2006 after serving a time in prison for his part in a 2004 Springfield, NE carjacking.

FERNANDEZ apparently sneaked back into the United States and returned to Omaha, where family members last saw him at his birthday party in late March 2007. FERNANDEZ was killed in early July and his body left in a grassy and wooded area until six months later when it was discovered, according to officials.

He had sisters living in Omaha who eventually reported him as a missing person in October 2008, nine months after his body was found.

Sisters told authorities that he would take off on his own for long periods and they thought that maybe he had returned to Mexico.

Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation had checked with Omaha officials early in their investigation, when information they found seemed to indicate that the unidentified body might have been someone from that area.

The match wasn’t made, however, until Jim SHIELDS, an Omaha detective, searched information in a newly created Department of Justice database called NamUs, where the Ringgold county information was detailed and made a possible connection.

SHIELDS had information that tied FERNANDEZ to acquaintances in New Market and SHIELDS guessed that an unidentified body found 40 miles away from New Market in Ringgold county could be a possibility.

DNA evidence was provided by FERNANDEZ'S sisters and was conclusively matched in January of this year, according to authorities.

After the skeletal remains were found in December 2007, information was provided to the public in May 2008 that the body was that of a male in his early 20's, 5'3" to 5'6" tall, Causcasian or Hispanic, with DVS shoes, Tommy Hilfiger jean shorts and a maroon colored hooded sweatshirt. Another distinguishing item was the Lord of the Rings ring found on his finger.

Charged first with the murder in June 2008 was Edward GRAY Jr., 40, of College Springs.

As the investigation continued, charges against GRAY were dropped and first degree murder charges were filed in December 2008 against Collins STRAIGHT, who had been listed as a witness against GRAY in the first trial information.

STRAIGHT'S arrest for a burglary of the home of Lillie RINEHART earlier in 2008 had been cited by law enforcement officers as a break in the case.

According to trial information, law enforcement officials charged that STRAIGHT drove FERNANDEZ to the remote location northwest of Mount Ayr to complete a drug transaction, fatally shot FERNANDEZ and drug his body to the area where it was eventually found.

In action in district court in Mount Ayr recently, the trial information was amended to add four more charges to the first degree charge STRAIGHT already faced.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, August of 2010