A volunteer participating in a lake cleanup Oct. 31 found a young man’s dead body stuffed in a suitcase that was submerged in the body of water.
The elderly volunteer who came across the grim discovery, 71-year-old Kevin Shomo, recalled the moments he and other good samaritans found the luggage containing a corpse while cleaning up debris at Lake Merritt in Oakland, California. “We said, ‘Wow! Wow! This thing is heavy,'” he told The Mercury News. Upon opening the blue suitcase, Shomo and fellow volunteers discovered the deceased body wrapped in a sheet, and proceeded to call 911.
“Normally, we see luggage in the lake, and sometimes it’s full of clothes. Nothing like this,” Shomo told Mercury News. (RELATED: Logan Airport TSA Agents Find Titanium ‘Vampire Straw’ In Carry-On Luggage)
Authorities identified the man as a homeless 23-year-old man from Guatemala named Gabriel Gomez Raymundo, Law & Crime reported.
The Oakland Police Department has released the identity and photo of a man found stuffed into a suitcase in Lake Merritt on Halloween in hopes of solving the case. https://t.co/5EniPF89An
— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) November 16, 2023
The man had allegedly been in the United States for 8 years. (RELATED: Illegal Immigrant Wanted For Murdering A Child In Brazil Arrested On American Soil)
Body found in suitcase floating in Lake Merritt identified https://t.co/EdNlbKJ3aI
— KTVU (@KTVU) November 16, 2023
Now, California officials have called upon the public to help find information in connection with the slaying of the late Guatemalan victim, the outlet noted.
Oakland Police Captain Alan Yu stated that an investigation is ongoing, according to KTVU.
“Part of the investigation is trying to determine where the body was could have floated from. It could be any part of the lake, and we’re looking at all those possible outcomes,” Yu explained to the outlet.