Inset: Michael Rodriguez in court (Arizona”s Family). Background: The residential area near where Rodriguez’s father’s body was found in El Mirage, Ariz. (Google Maps).
An Arizona man is behind bars for killing his father and then hiding the victim’s body under a piece of wood inside a carport, according to law enforcement in the Grand Canyon State.
Michael Rodriguez, 48, stands accused of second-degree murder, abandonment or concealment of a dead body and a probation violation over the death of Salvador Ortiz Rivera Jr., whose age has not yet been released, according to the El Mirage Police Department.
The underlying incident occurred sometime earlier this week at a residence on North Luna Street in El Mirage, a medium-sized city and suburb located roughly 25 miles northwest of Phoenix.
On Wednesday, a state trooper received a tip from a man he met at a QuikTrip gas station that the victim’s body would be found at the residence in question, according to court documents obtained by Phoenix-based independent TV station KTVK and local CBS affiliate KPHO, which collectively broadcast as Arizona’s Family.
The tipster said the defendant told him to go to Rivera’s house and take whatever he wanted, according to law enforcement. But, when the man went to take stock of the personal property at the residence, he saw that the victim was dead, so he opted not to take anything.
But that was not the end of the tipster’s involvement.
During the early morning hours on Wednesday, Rodriguez came over to the tipster’s house with another man, and the trio went to Rivera’s house, police said. The purpose of this group outing was to get the wallet off the dead man’s body because he had $5,000 in the bank, according to the charging documents.
The tipster, however, said he could not bring himself to take the dead man’s wallet, so he told the defendant the wallet was gone, police said. Then, after thinking over what had happened, the tipster went to the QuikTrip to call law enforcement when he ran into the state trooper.
When authorities arrived at Rivera’s home, they found his decomposing body hidden underneath a plywood cover in a concrete-lined vehicle repair pit in a “carport-type structure,” police said.
The victim had a plastic bag on his head and marks indicating he had been strangled, according to law enforcement.
The tipster went on to tell investigators he last saw the deceased man alive on either Saturday or Sunday, police said.
Law enforcement then made its way to Rodriguez’s residence, located just a few blocks away. When questioned, the man allegedly admitted to having “beef” and other issues with his father.
“He responded that he was not like his dad; he stated that he was good and that his dad put him in prison for not minding his business at the compound,” an officer wrote in the charging document. “He told me that he had spent six years in prison.”
The defendant then said his father drank all the time and that “we got into it,” before adding that he “lost it” after Rivera called him “crazy,” according to law enforcement. Rodriguez allegedly said he blacked out during the subsequent fight and woke to find his father dead.
“I need somehow to get rid of the body,” was his first thought upon making the grim discovery, the defendant allegedly said.
As questioning continued, Rodriguez said he hit Rivera in the head with a bar and then got rid of the weapon as well as the shoes he was wearing during the incident, police said.
The defendant is being detained in the Maricopa County Jail on $2 million bond.
During his arraignment, Rodriguez spoke at length to tell the court he had no regrets about what transpired, seemingly accusing his father of having gang affiliations.
“You know who my dad is?” he asked. “La Familia. That’s who he is. That’s who he was. A bad dude. A bad man. I had to stop him.”
