MOPD looks for leads in beating death
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on February 28, 2010 8:12 AM
Mount Olive police are still looking for leads to identify a man found mortally wounded on Kelly Street early last Monday, Police Chief Ralph Schroeder said.
Police still have only the man's first name -- "Arturo" -- provided by the decedent's roommates, who reportedly lived with him on South Center Street.
Schroeder said that the man's fingerprints have been taken and sent to the State Bureau of Investigation in attempt to identify him.
"We ... put a rush on the prints to try to see if he's ever been fingerprinted before," the police chief said.
The men apparently did not know "Arturo" well, and say they had never asked him his last name, Police Chief Ralph Schroeder said.
"He lived with a couple of guys (on South Center Street)," Schroeder said. "They had just never asked him what his (last) name was .. they just knew him by Arturo."
The police chief said that Mount Olive authorities are using what information they have to continue in their investigation.
"We're trying to follow the few leads that we have at this time, and that's still about where we are," Schroeder said.
The young Hispanic man, who was probably in his early- to mid-20s, was found on Kelly Street with fatal wounds just after 2:30 a.m. on Monday.
He was initially taken to Wayne Memorial Hospital. Because of the severity of his injuries, the man was taken by medical helicopter to Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville, where he died on Monday afternoon, authorities said.
Police are still hoping for the public's help in identifying "Arturo," who was about 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighed about 108 pounds, and had a scar on the left side of his face measuring about two inches long.
The scar started at his left eyebrow and continued around his left eye, police reported. The man also had a thin black mustache and unconnected goatee.
"Arturo" was also known to walk along Center Street and Cleveland Drive in Mount Olive, police said.
Anyone with any information about the man's identity is asked to call the Crime Stoppers hotline at 735-2255, or Mount Olive Police at 658-5031, extensions 102 or 104.