Sex, murder: Body trapped by Irma

As a hurricane swirled outside, inside a Hollywood apartment, a sex threesome turned deadly. Police say two men wrapped their playmate in cling wrap and stuffed him in a closet, where he was found — three days after Irma passed.

As Hurricane Irma raged across South Florida, a sexual encounter between three men at a Hollywood apartment led to the grisly death of one of them, police say.

The assault upon Ariel Fleitas Gonzalez, 50, happened Sept. 10. Three days later, a neighbor concerned that she had not seen Gonzalez since before the storm, detected a foul odor coming from his home and called police to the Chatham Terrace apartments at 2617 Lincoln St., where residents were still without power.

Officers searching the apartment noticed blood spatter in the bedroom. Drag marks on the floor of the apartment led officers to a closet. Inside was Gonzalez’s body, Hollywood police said.

Cops could see part of Gonzalez’s injured head; the rest of his remains were wrapped in a comforter and shrink wrap and were in an advanced state of decomposition, police said.

Neighbors told officers they saw two men, including one who wore a long blond wig, going in and out of Gonzalez’s apartment that stormy Sunday.

Building residents later identified the pair from photographs a detective showed them.

Travis Emanuel Watson, 30, who is homeless, is one of those men, police said.

Gonzalez saw Watson and another man — who called Watson his husband, witnesses said — the day of the storm. Gonzalez whistled at Watson and invited the pair to his home, Watson told police. After consensual sex between the trio, additional sex acts between Watson and Gonzalez made the third man jealous, Watson told detectives, according to an arrest report.

The encounter became a robbery, and Watson admitted punching Gonzalez in the face before demanding his money. Watson found a gray wallet, which held several hundred dollars, in Gonzalez’s dresser, police said.

Watson’s partner “tortured” Gonzalez and “beat him to death,” violence that included binding his hands behind his back with a sheet. Watson told police his partner beat Gonzalez with a

hanger, a broomstick and a power cord. After Gonzalez’s bloodied hands became free, Watson secured them with a belt. His partner poured hot grease over the victim, and Watson claimed he tried to stop the assaults, the report said.

The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office later found Gonzalez’s death was a homicide and that his body had “multiple sharp force injuries” that were not fatal. The cause of death was undetermined, pending the results of toxicology tests and the police investigation, the report said.

Before the men left Gonzalez’s home, Watson noticed the injured man’s tongue sticking out, his face had turned purple and he did not have a pulse. The men placed Gonzalez’s body in the bathtub to wash away blood and evidence and wrapped it in a sheet and industrial shrink wrap before concealing it in the closet. They left the apartment about 7 a.m. on Sept. 12, according to the investigation.

Five days later, in the 600 block of Southeast 17th Street in Fort Lauderdale, a patrol officer noticed Watson, who matched a “be on the lookout” alert issued by Hollywood police. Watson was drinking from a can of Hurricane Category 5 malt liquor, according to an arrest report. He was arrested for suspicion of violating municipal ordinances: Possessing less than a gram of marijuana and holding an open container of alcohol.

A gray wallet that held a card with Gonzalez’s name on it was taken from Watson.

Fort Lauderdale police called Hollywood detectives who also arrested Watson for suspicion of committing robbery without a weapon; kidnapping to commit or facilitate the robbery and failing to report Gonzalez’s death to authorities.

During a court hearing on Sept. 28, Assistant State Attorney Eric Linder said Watson was released June 1 from a state prison after 2004 convictions for grand theft of a firearm, armed robbery, five burglaries and other offenses.

Judge Michael Davis ordered Watson held without bond on the kidnapping charge.

Watson’s partner was still being sought by Hollywood police, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.