A San Diego man already in custody in connection with a fatal 2023 shooting has now been named as a person of interest in an ongoing investigation of human remains that were found Tuesday at a Southcrest apartment building where he used to live, officials said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Dwight William Rhone, 74, was arrested last year on suspicion of shooting Bernardo Moreno, 54, and setting the victim\u2019s body on fire in the South Bay.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, investigators said they had reason to believe human remains were located at a small apartment complex where Rhone used to live on Newton Avenue just north of Interstate 5, investigators said.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement officials executed a search warrant at the property and located human remains in the yard, San Diego police said.<\/p>\n
Investigators declined to provide any further details about the ongoing investigation. The remains will be identified, and the cause of death will be determined by the county Medical Examiner\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
The remains were found as part of a joint operation between California Highway Patrol officers and FBI agents, but the investigation is now being handled by the Police Department\u2019s Cold Case\/Missing Persons unit and the District Attorney\u2019s Office due to the apartment complex falling within city limits, police Lt. Travis Easter said.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, investigators from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service were seen at the complex.<\/p>\n
Rhone was previously accused of shooting Moreno on Interstate 5 near state Route 905 on Oct. 13, 2023. Firefighters said they found the body lying in the burn area of a brush fire they had extinguished along the side of the freeway, investigators said at the time.<\/p>\n
CHP officers arrested and booked Rhone 14 months later on suspicion of murder, attempted robbery, unlawful taking or driving of a vehicle and identity theft.<\/p>\n
At the time of that arrest, Rhone had been in federal custody. Federal court records show that Rhone has previous firearm and parole violation convictions.<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear if Moreno\u2019s death was\u00a0connected to the human remains found at the apartment complex.<\/p>\n
The property is listed on homes.com as a two-story, triplex on a 6,729-square-foot lot that sold in June 2023 as part of a probate case.<\/p>\n
In a response to an active appeal filed by Rhone with the 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in connection with his previous felony convictions, federal prosecutors said that over a six-month period and around the same time as Moreno\u2019s killing, Rhone was arrested twice \u2014 and later convicted \u2014 on gun-and-drug-related charges.<\/p>\n
The first arrest during that period occurred on June 20, 2023, when Rhone got into a confrontation with a San Diego police officer during a traffic stop, the federal court document reads. The officers later found an unregistered .45-caliber handgun in his front pocket, as well as crack cocaine and marijuana.<\/p>\n
About a month after Moreno\u2019s body was found, Rhone was arrested again on firearms allegations by San Diego police after they found a loaded shotgun with the serial number scratched off in a car he was driving, according to the appellate file.<\/p>\n
Staff writer Alex Riggins and staff photographer Nelvin C. Cepeda contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A San Diego man already in custody in connection with a fatal 2023 shooting has now been named…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,138,181,23,100,74,84,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-80851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}