The Will County Sheriff’s Office is announcing the arrest of Javier Heredia-Rios, age 32, of 312 N. Eastern Avenue in Joliet for the murder of Oscar Garrido-Castro, age 36, of Joliet.  Today, the Will County Coroner’s Office positively identified Garrido-Castro and stated cause of death to be blunt force trauma and strangulation.  The arrest of Heredia-Rios comes 11 hours after Sheriff’s Deputies located Garrido-Castro’s deceased body in an abandoned 2004 GMC Envoy in Joliet Township.  

Heredia-Rios and Garrido-Castro were long time acquaintances and were together on Sunday, October 16, around 6:30pm, at Mora Builders, 12145 W. 159^th Street in Homer Glen where Heredia-Rios is employed.  The business was closed at the time and the two men allegedly began to argue about sexual advances that Garrido-Castro made to Heredia-Rios.  The altercation escalated and Heredia-Rios struck Garrido-Castro in the head with a hammer and then strangled him.  Heredia-Rios then placed Garrido-Castro into Garrido-Castro’s vehicle and drove it to Rosalind Avenue, west of Farrell Road, in Joliet Township, where he abandoned the vehicle.

Yesterday, after the vehicle and body were found on Rosalind, the Sheriff’s Office Investigation Division began making contact with family members of the registered owner (Garrido-Castro) and learned of escalating situations between the two men.  Detectives tracked Heredia-Rios to his residence at 11:00pm.  He voluntarily came to the Investigation Division where he cooperated with detectives.  By his own admission, Heredia-Rios stated that when he was approached by officers he was on his way to Mexico.  Heredia-Rios is an undocumented immigrant and has been issued a temporary visitor’s driver’s license. 

Javier Heredia-Rios was charged with four counts of First Degree Murder and one count of Concealing a Homicide.  He will be booked into the Will County Sheriff’s Adult Detention Facility later today.  He will appear in court tomorrow at 1:00pm.  –end-