{"id":235654,"date":"2026-04-05T04:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T04:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/235654\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T04:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T04:09:09","slug":"family-friends-remember-murdered-84-year-old-san-antonio-man-whose-body-was-found-burning-in-ditch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/235654\/","title":{"rendered":"Family, friends remember murdered 84-year-old San Antonio man whose body was found burning in ditch"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Community members gathered Saturday evening to remember an 84-year-old man considered by many to be a \u201cgood Samaritan\u201d who \u201ctruly loved his neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manuel \u201cManny\u201d Gomez Mendez Jr. was found<\/a> burning in the brush along a busy Southeast Side road on Saturday, March 28.<\/p>\n

The East Side senior worked tirelessly in the community for years, those close to him said, often loaning his time to charities Fechner and HIS BridgeBuilders.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made a big difference in a lot of people\u2019s lives, mine included,\u201d Melvin Fechner said Wednesday. \u201cAlways being with God\u2019s people, doing the work of God, to love God and love his neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fechner said he witnessed Mendez often bending over backwards, trying to fill whatever needs people may have, from providing food and clothing to getting them medical help and housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike a roving good Samaritan, you know, just out looking for people to befriend and see how he could help them out,\u201d Fechner said.<\/p>\n

In addition to all the people he knew and helped in the community, his friends said Mendez was a father of two sons. <\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Community members gathered Saturday evening to remember an 84-year-old man considered by many to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[294,4667,96,2461,82,84,83,4668,51314],"class_list":{"0":"post-235654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-crime-fighters","10":"tag-east-side","11":"tag-homicide","12":"tag-san-antonio","13":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","14":"tag-san-antonio-news","15":"tag-southeast-side","16":"tag-we-follow-through"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}