A homeless man is in custody and facing a first-degree murder charge after another man’s body was found in a trash can on the Schuylkill River Trail in Norristown this week, officials said Saturday.
Felix Santos-Colon Jr., 46, is being held without bail in the killing of 44-year-old Oscar Traviezo-Tercero, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele’s office said in a news release.
Detectives who authored a criminal complaint identified Traviezo-Tercero as “a Mexican national currently unhoused and living in the Norristown area.”
Traviezo-Tercero’s body was discovered in a trash can on the trail late on the night of Monday, Nov. 10. A citizen called 911 after seeing the can in the brush and smelled a foul odor. Responding officers then located the body and several bicycle parts scattered around the scene.
Norristown police and Montgomery County detectives investigated and learned Traviezo-Tercero and Santos-Colon would sleep in the car wash at Global Gas on Main Street in Norristown. Santos-Colon also performed custodial work around the gas station and car wash, detectives wrote in a criminal complaint.
Traviezo-Tercero had an interaction with police on Nov. 2, when he called 911 to report he was trying to protect Santos-Colon’s girlfriend from harm. The woman left the scene before police arrived and the alleged aggressor was not listed in the document. The victim was last seen alive on Nov. 4, detectives say.
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Surveillance footage reviewed by detectives from Nov. 5, the following day, showed Santos-Colon and another man pulling a trash can that matches the one found on the trail. Detectives said in the criminal complaint video shows the can was extremely full, with bike parts sticking out of the top. Police believe these parts were found at the scene.
One portion of the video shows Santos-Colon struggling to pull the can up a hill due to the can appearing extremely heavy, detectives allege.
Police later interviewed a man who admitted that he helped Santos-Colon move a trash bin on the night of Nov. 5. The man denied knowing the contents of the bin and there is no indication he has been criminally charged. Santos-Colon also told police the man who helped him did not know the bin’s contents.
Santos-Colon later confessed to the killing and said he used a baseball bat to attack the victim, according to the criminal complaint. He said he hit Traviezo-Tercero because the man had threatened him.
An autopsy conducted by the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office found Traviezo-Tercero had multiple fractures on the back of the skull, and that his cause of death was homicide via blunt force trauma.
Santos-Colon is also facing charges of third-degree murder and possession of an instrument of crime. He is ineligible for bail due to the first-degree murder charge.
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