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Police Find Another Body in Home of Murdered Hercules Man

A body has been found inside the same Hercules home where an elderly man was found murdered last month, the latest twist in a bizarre East Bay murder spree.

Hercules Police and FBI agents were searching 1066 Crepe Myrtle Drive on Thursday afternoon.  The home is where 73-year-old Ricardo Sales was found bludgeoned and stabbed to death on August 28th.  Since then, his 35-year-old son Frederick Sales has been missing and was feared dead, according to investigators. 

The body was found Thursday in a downstairs closet after investigators discovered a blood trail using a Luminol, a luminescent chemical designed to find blood traces.  The body had been wrapped in plastic and stuffed under debris in the closet, according to investigators.

There is no word yet on the identity of the body found at the home Thursday, nor why the body had not been discovered before.

The suspect in the elder Sales' killing, Efren Valdemoro, was shot dead by CHP officers last week following a pursuit in the East Bay. The body of Cindy Tran, Valdemoro's girlfriend, was found in the vehicle driven by Valdemoro when the pursuit ended.

Investigators believe Tran was strangled to death during the pursuit.  Tran owned the home where Richard Sales was found dead and where the second body was found Friday.  Tran had rented rooms to both men. 

Valdemoro is also believed to be involved in the slaying of two women in Vallejo.  The decomposed bodies of 63-year-old Segundina Allen and 60-year-old Marcaria Smart were found in Allen's Vallejo home.  Allen was an acquaintance of Valdemoro who had allowed him to stay in her home off and on for about 10 years, authorities said.

Allen's husband, Charles Rittenhouse, 72, a chemical engineer, was home when the bodies were discovered but has not been charged in their deaths.  He was arrested on suspicion of explosives possession and was released from Solano County Jail Wednesday, when his bail was lowered from $2 million to $25,000, Solano County Deputy District Attorney Michael Mullins said.

Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges of unlawful possession of an explosive and possession of materials with intent to make an explosive device without a permit.

Hercules police have been searching for Frederick Sales' possible remains at the Keller Canyon Landfill in Pittsburg since Friday.  The landfill search began after Allen's Cadillac Escalade, which Valdemoro had been driving, was found at a business park in Hercules.  Police believed the younger Sales' body may have been placed in a dumpster at the business park.

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