Victim’s stolen cell phone leads to the capture of murder suspect

A stolen cell phone was the key evidence that led to Sunday’s arrest of José Víctor Y., the man suspected in at least two recent murders near Cuenca. Police say the phone belonged to Rosa Regina Camas, 38, whose body was found last Monday in Guangarcucho, just off the Cuenca-Azogues highway.

An obscured police image of the murder suspect.

The suspect is also being held in the murder of Maybelline Ocampo, 41, killed near the Amaru Zoo on March 31.

Diego Fuentes, Ecuador’s deputy interior minister, said that a special police unit followed the suspect by electronic surveillance when he began using Camas’ phone last week. “They employed standard triangulation methods to track his movements by cell signal,” Fuentes said, “He made it easy for us by keeping the phone turned on.”

José Víctor Y. was arrested Sunday at 6 p.m. near the intersection of Avs. Remigio Crespo and Brazil in Cuenca. Police say he had spent much of the day at Feria Libre, a large market on Av. Las Americas.

Police say that both victims died of gunshot wounds and that empty 16-gauge cartridges were recovered from both crime scenes.

The prosecutor’s office believes that José Víctor Y. acted alone in both cases and does not fit the standard model of a serial killer since theft was involved. Immediately after the murders, police had suggested that the suspect might be a serial killer.