A third suspect has been arrested in the grisly murder of Jose Reyes, the Chicago man who went missing in May and whose dismembered body was discovered in a South Side backyard this weekend.
Milton Miranda was arrested in Morristown, New Jersey on Saturday for aggravated assault, assault and possession of a weapon, the Star-Ledger reports. Miranda was wanted on a Chicago murder warrant and is awaiting extradition back to the city.
Miranda and Daisy Gutierrez reportedly fled to New Jersey after the May murder. Miranda’s booking photo and address were not immediately released by New Jersey police.
Daisy Gutierrez, 19, and her father Salvador Gutierrez, 56, were charged Sunday in Reyes’ slaying. Police say Miranda is Daisy Gutierrez’s boyfriend and the man who allegedly hit Reyes with a pipe, slashed his throat and decapitated him, CBS Chicago reports.
Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy called the crime “just another tragedy that is simply unacceptable in a civilized society in my mind.”
In court, prosecutors said jealousy was the driving force behind the heinous crime, according to the Sun-Times.
Prosecutors say Reyes had shown interest in Gutierrez, sparking Miranda’s violent outrage. Reyes was the brother of Daisy Gutierrez’s ex-boyfriend, Moncada Ramos, with whom she has two children.
Police sources told CBS Miranda has admitted to taking part in Reyes’ murder. Both Gutierrez family members have already implicated themselves: Daisy allegedly watched and was “an active participant” in the slaying, and later enlisted her father’s help to conceal Reyes’ remains in the backyard of the family’s South Side home.
Sunday, Daisy Gutierrez was charged with first-degree murder and ordered held on $2 million bond; her father was charged with concealing a homicidal death and was ordered held on $500,000 bond.