A plumber in California currently arrested on homicide charges has been found to be allegedly involved in a completely different murder.
Rotherie Durell Foster, 38, of Camarillo, has been charged with murder over the killing of 72-year-old Granada Hills resident Bill Dean Levy, who hailed from Los Angeles, according to reporting from Ventura County Star and a news release from the Ventura County District Attorney.
Prosecutors stumbled upon Foster’s connection with Levy’s death when they were investigating his role in the murder of 35-year-old José Antonio Velásquez, who Foster is accused of killing for financial gain, according to a previous statement from the Ventura County District Attorney.
Velásquez, a plumber like Foster, had been reported missing in July 2022. His body would be later discovered by hikers three months later near Mulholland Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains, the district attorney’s office stated.
Citing the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, the district attorney's office stated that Velásquez died from multiple gunshot wounds.
When authorities began investigating Velásquez’s death, they determined that Foster, who knew Velásquez well, had employed a firearm to “violently and forcibly” coerce Velásquez into divulging his financial information, KTLA-TV reported.
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Foster then used the information to allegedly obtain cash and pay for expenses such as gas, clothing, and food, according to the news station.
The suspect, according to Ventura County Star, was apprehended in January 2023.
When prosecutors were building Foster’s case file, they discovered that the suspect had also committed a series of other crimes, including “financial fraud” and “armed robbery,” according to the district attorney.
The list of other crimes, KTLA-TV reported, included murdering someone and using their financial information to pay himself.
According to the news station, investigators examined Foster’s bank account and found that the suspect had received several payments from Levy, who was discovered dead inside his house in Granada Hills on January 10, 2022.
Authorities, according to the Ventura County District Attorney, initially had determined Levy’s death to be natural.
However, upon learning of the suspicious bank transactions, they exhumed Levy’s corpse and found, through an autopsy, that fentanyl exposure resulted in Levy’s demise.
“Mr. Levy was a quiet but nice man who lived a regimented lifestyle and kept a rigid schedule about his daily routines,” Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said, according to KTLA-TV.
According to Fryhoff, Levy’s dead body was found inside the home after neighbors grew concerned over Levy’s absence.
Prior to Levy’s death, Foster had done plumbing work on several occasions at the houses.
The “troubling and similar pattern” demonstrating Foster’s “potential for murder for financial gain” has led officials to name him as a suspect, according to KTLA-TV.
The suspect is jailed in Ventura County’s Todd Road Jail with a bond of $1.25 million, according to the Ventura County Star.
Foster has been hit with 33 charges for felony and more than 100 special allegations, KTLA-TV reported.
According to the news station, the allegations include first-degree murder, identity theft, and poisoning.
