Insets, top to bottom: Gabriel Vilchez and David Gardiner (Sequatchie County Sheriff”s Office). Background: Home where Vilchez and Gardiner allegedly killed Silvia Vilchez (WTVC/YouTube).
An 18-year-old Tennessee man allegedly beat his mother to death with a baseball bat as her husband watched, then they burned her body in the backyard and told cops she left for her native Costa Rica.
Gabriel Vilchez and his 64-year-old stepfather David Gardiner are charged with murder and abuse of a corpse in the death of 47-year-old Silvia Vilchez.
According to the Sequatchie County Sheriff’s Office, several people called to report Silvia Vilchez missing on Oct. 28. Gabriel Vilchez claimed his mother left the country.
Two days later, deputies searched the residence in Lewis Chapel, which is roughly 30 miles north of Chattanooga. Inside, detectives found a crime scene in the home office.
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“There were red-brown stains on the garbage, on all four walls,” Det. Bryan Wilkie said Monday during a preliminary hearing. “There was blood on the desk, on the printer, on the baseboards, all over the walls.”
Investigators then found Silvia Vilchez’s body in a burn pit.
Authorities took the younger Vilchez and Gardiner into custody. Vilchez allegedly admitted to beating his mother to death with the bat and said Gardiner hit her as well. He and his stepfather then reportedly rolled her up in the carpet and rolled her outside to a fire pit.
“He stated they were out there all night long feeding wood on the fire to keep it burning,” Wilkie said.
Gardiner apparently gave a much different story. He told authorities he is a “heavy sleeper” and slept through the beating and burning of the body, and insisted he knew nothing about what happened.
Skeptical of Gardiner’s story, prosecutors asked Wilkie what a body would smell like as it was being burned.
“It’s a pretty strong odor,” Wilkie said — the implication being that Gardiner would have noticed it.
Authorities have not publicly divulged a motive for the killing.
The judge ordered Gabriel Vilchez held in the Sequatchie County Jail without bond and Gardiner on a $250,000 bond. Their next court date is Jan. 30.
