Man, 26, indicted in slaying of woman
A man accused of hacking a woman to death in front of her fiancé has been indicted on a charge of murder.
Rafael Castillo, 26, was charged in the grisly killing of Nicole Perry, 31, on Nov. 19, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office said.
A Bexar County public works crew found Perry’s remains wrapped in trash bags and covered by a tarp on a desolate stretch near W.W. White and Higdon roads on the Southeast Side.
Authorities said evidence found at the scene led them to a South Side home in the 300 block of West Harlan Avenue. A Sheriff’s Office SWAT team raided the home days later and interviewed at least 10 witnesses, believed to be transients who stayed at the property, which belonged to an elderly man.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said at the time that blood was found in the home and that investigators saw signs of attempts to conceal evidence.
“It’s a gruesome attack. I don’t even want to imagine what this woman went through,” Salazar said.
An affidavit said Castillo and Perry got into an argument and he bound her by the hands. He used a machete to cut her hands off and then hacked her to death “to make an example of her,” the affidavit stated.
Castillo is alleged to have made the woman’s fiancé clean up the scene and dispose of the body.
Castillo was arrested Dec. 16. He is being held in the Bexar County jail in lieu of $500,000 bail, according to court records.
If convicted, Castillo could get up to life in prison.
The case was among nearly 280 felony indictments returned by two Bexar County grand juries this week.
Also indicted was Priscilla Ann Caballero, 36, on a charge of murder in the shooting of Yvette Salinas, 40, on Jan. 5.
Police said Caballero and Salinas were romantically involved with the same man. Caballero lived with the man in the 100 block of Seashell Place on the Southwest Side.
On the day of the slaying, Salinas went to the home to confront Caballero.
Witnesses said the women argued before Salinas was shot in the head. She died at the scene.