Cops have finally made an arrest in connection with the high-profile murder of a retired flight attendant whose dismembered body was found near the iconic Hollywood sign in 2012, officials in Los Angeles announced Monday.
Gabriel Campos Martinez, 38, was arrested on Sunday and suspected of murdering 66-year-old Hervey Coronado Medellin, a retired Mexicana Airlines employee, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on Monday filed one murder count against Campos Martinez. Prosecutors say bail has been set at $1 million. He faces 25 years to life if convicted in the gruesome slaying.
Medellin’s severed head was discovered in January 2012 by two women who were walking their dogs on a trail by the Hollywood sign, the LAPD said. Additional body parts were found near the head with the assistance of a cadaver dog, police said.
Martinez is being held without bail in San Antonio, Texas, and awaiting extradition, according to the LAPD. He was described in an April 2012 affidavit as Medellin’s live-in boyfriend.
Medellin’s neighbors told NBC Southern California that he lived in an apartment complex south of Bronson Canyon Park, about five miles from the Hollywood sign. And family members in Texas told the station that he was a retiree after working for 25 years with Mexicana Airlines.
— Andrew Blankstein and Elisha Fieldstadt
