PALM BAY, Fla. – New details from a murder case in Palm Bay reveal the victim’s heart monitor led police to the body.
Nick Bauer remembered Nick Mitchell for the car shows they went to and for being roommates for three years.
“He was a good friend,” Bauer said. “He was like family.”
Bauer said an accident at work caused Mitchell to wear a heart monitor, and when his roommate disappeared last month after he was last seen at a Circle K, Bauer said he told Palm Bay police that the heart monitor had GPS.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
“When they pinged it two days after he was missing, they said he was out of the area, and I said, ‘That isn’t right,’” Bauer said.
Police said Mitchell’s body was found in the Compound, a neighborhood that was never finished and where police have been investigating three other murders in just the last year.
Rene Lemos, 41, is now in custody of the Brevard County jail, but she’s not accused of killing Mitchell.
“I’ve never been in trouble a day in my life until now,” Lemos said during her first appearance before a judge Sept. 15.
A new affidavit reads that the other suspect, Lemos’ boyfriend Robert Lanning, 28, shot Mitchell and then told Lemos, “He’s gone. I shot him.”
Police said both suspects were captured out of state, and Lanning had Mitchell’s car.
Lemos told police Mitchell offered to sell them his BMW when they first met each other at the Circle K.
In another interview, police said Lemos claimed they all went to the Compound to drag race.
Bauer doesn’t believe her. He thinks the suspect carjacked Mitchell.
“He was driving his BMW show car,” he said. “He wouldn’t be out drag racing. As soon as they got the car, they headed out of state with it.”
Lanning, the murder suspect, is still awaiting his transfer to the Brevard County jail where, like Lemos, he’ll also make a first appearance before a judge.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: