He was a visitor to Memphis
when he was killed four years ago
It was late in 2016 when a young Albuquerque, New Mexico man decided he wanted to see the country and began a travel east.
Dominic Castillo was 22 years old He was an artist and loved outdoors adventures. He told his family not to worry and began to travel by car and on foot, with his dog Lily.
In mid-January 2017 he came to Memphis. It was his first time in the city — a metropolis he would never leave. According to his mother, his last post on his Facebook page was from Memphis on January 22. On February 11, a passerby spotted a man’s body in a southwest section of Nonconnah Creek. It was Castillo’s body.
Police determined he had been strangled before his body was discharged into the water. Few other clues were uncovered and the case remains one in the cold case murder files at the Memphis Police Department.
To review many of the online cold cases on file in Memphis visit here.
Convictions won by D.A’s office in 2 cold cases
Two Memphis cold cases — one a home invasion murder in 2014 and the other a 2006 rape — came to successful judicial conclusions this month with convictions.
The rape case ended with a repeat sex offender being found guilty and sentenced to 25 years with no parole possible. Joshua Beadle already had been incarcerated since 2015 for other sex crimes and has further cases pending in court.
The crime for which he was sentenced this month occurred around 5 a.m. on January 30, 2006. When a sexual assault kit was prepared and tested the DNA found was intered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System database and in April 2015 was identified as belonging to Beadle. The defendant has six prior felony convictions.
In the other case, a residence on North Walnut Bend Road in Cordova was entered at 8 p.m. on November 28, 2014. The homeowners had just returned home when two gunmen in stocking masks forced their way inside, demanding money.
Victim Jarmelle Jones, 26, tried to disarm one of the intruders and was shot in the chest. His girlfriend, then 27, was wounded in the leg. Jones died from his wound.
Two years later Thaddeus Money was developed as a suspect in the case.
He was found guilty of first-degree murder and other felony counts earlier this month in criminal court.
