Gerald Rowe and Angel Anderson will spend decades behind bars for torturing a man and stuffing him in a suitcase before dumping him in the San Francisco Bay. (San Francisco Police Department)
Two people will spend decades behind bars after being convicted of torturing a man and stuffing him in a suitcase before dumping him in the San Francisco Bay.
A jury convicted 52-year-old Gerald Rowe of first-degree murder, by way of torture and poison, the San Francisco District Attorney said Tuesday in a press release. Angel Anderson, 41, pleaded guilty to the same charges.
The investigation into the gruesome murders began on Feb. 18, 2019, when a resident found the body of 23-year-old George Randall-Saldivar floating in the bay near 1600 The Embarcadero. Two days later, San Francisco police received a call from Sacramento police who said a man, later identified as Anderson, came to their agency and claimed she had been involved in a murder in San Francisco, according to cops at the time.
Police took Anderson into custody and learned the homicide took place at Rowe’s apartment on the 1200 block of Market Street. Both were arrested.
Horrific details about what happened inside the apartment came out at Rowe’s trial. Prosecutors said Randall-Saldivar, an acquaintance of Rowe’s, came to the home on Feb. 3, 2019. Local affiliate KRON reported the trio were engaging in consensual sex.
At some point, the ordeal turned violent when Anderson confronted the victim with a machete and she and Rowe bound the victim, tied a noose around his neck and hung him up on the ceiling, prosecutors said.
“The victim was tortured for more than 4 hours in this position as he was screamed at, hit, punched, sodomized, assaulted with plyers and a bag placed over his head,” the press release said.
Rowe left the apartment and returned with fentanyl. They then allegedly injected Randall-Saldivar with a mixture of water and fentanyl, causing him to convulse and struggle to breathe. Next, with the victim still alive, Rowe and Anderson stuffed him into a suitcase and waited for him to die, prosecutors said.
After about 20 hours, Anderson and Rowe disguised themselves and rolled the suitcase with Randall-Saldivar’s body still inside about 2 miles before dumping it into the bay near Rincon Park, according to prosecutors.
Rowe faces life in prison while a judge will sentence Anderson to between 25 years to life in prison. They’ll be sentenced on March 18.
“We feel an overwhelming sense of relief for the victim’s family who have waited far too long to receive justice in this case. Mr. Rowe and Ms. Anderson’s actions were heinous and a beloved son’s life was lost far too early,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement.
Assistant District Attorney Charly Weissenbach described the facts of the case as egregious and horrific.
“While this conviction cannot undo the hours of torture and painful poisoning experienced by the victim, it does condemn the depravity of the defendant’s acts along with the inhumane way he handled the victim’s remains when he threw him into the bay like garbage,” she said.
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