Kevin IsazaThe Whitfield County Sheriff's Office arrested a third man connected to the burned body found in the woods at the beginning of the year.
Deputies booked Kevin Isaza, 23, of Antioch, Tenn., on a murder charge Monday evening. He and at least two other men killed Luis Antonio Lopez, of Nashville, and burned his corpse in the woods off Ellis Road, said Capt. Rick Swiney, who oversees the investigations division at the sheriff's office.
In February, investigators arrested Roberto Viera Aybar, 23, of Antioch, and Hector Ruiz, 29, of Nashville, on murder charges in this case. Swiney declined to comment when asked if anyone else is linked to Isaza's death.
"It's possible," he said. "The case is still under investigation."
After a 13-year-old boy found the burned body on Jan. 10, medical examiners identified the dead man as Lopez, 26. He had been involved in a marijuana grow operation in the Nashville area, Swiney said. After identifying Lopez, the sheriff's office and Georgia Bureau of Investigation began working with agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, trying to find people linked to Lopez.
"We believe it possibly involved drugs," Swiney said of the murder.
During the investigation, agents linked Aybar, Isaza and Ruiz to the killing. Swiney declined to say how specifically the men were tied to the crime scene and Lopez.
But after Aybar's and Ruiz's arrests, investigators still had not found Isaza. Swiney said he fled to California after arrest warrants were issued in his name. Last week, members of the U.S. Marshal's Office found him in Sacramento.
Some Whitfield County court services officers flew to California this weekend and drove Isaza back, arriving at the jail around 6:30 p.m.