OCEAN CITY — Nearly eight years after a Virginia man was reportedly murdered in his family’s Ocean City condominium, the victim’s remains have never been found and the case remains an active investigation, although a potential lead was unveiled last week with the discovery of the remains of a Hispanic man loosely matching the description of the victim found in a remote area in West Virginia.
Eduardo Masoller, then 52, of Springfield, Va., was reported missing by his family on Feb. 3, 2005, just three days after he and his crew arrived in the resort area for a contracting job. Ocean City Police detectives, accompanied by family members, went to Masoller’s condominium on 68th Street and discovered a large knife on the floor as well as a large amount of blood evidence throughout the unit, the most significant of which was a large pool in one of the unit’s bedrooms.
In June 2005, five months after the disappearance was first reported, a Worcester County Circuit Court judge ruled favorably on a petition to declare Masoller officially deceased, turning the missing persons case into a homicide investigation. The judge essentially agreed the evidence presented suggested the victim could not have survived the injuries indicated by the amount of blood discovered in the unit.
In the nearly eight years since, the case has remained open and OCPD detectives still chase leads and other tidbits of information, but the victim’s remains have never been found and the two suspects identified early on have likely fled the country. In every year since the incident, OCPD detectives have urged hunters and hikers in the resort area and across the Eastern Shore and beyond to keep an eye out for the victim’s possible remains to no avail. However, human remains found in a remote area of Jefferson County, W.Va, by hunters on Thanksgiving day last week could provide a link to the resort homicide. Jefferson County is located near Harper’s Ferry in the West Virginia panhandle and is bordered by Maryland and Berkeley County, W.Va.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office last week reported the human remains are believed to be those of a Hispanic male whose body might have been in the area where the remains were discovered for years. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and a forensic archaeologist indicated the man was Hispanic and likely around 50 years of age or older and that the remains could have been there for multiple years.
A skull and ribcage were found and the body had a sweatshirt that read “Kino Wrestling.” Also found were other clothing remnants and a boot believed to be size 10. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office reported it did not believe the deceased man was local, but was rather dumped in the remote area several years ago.
While it’s somewhat of a stretch, the remains found in West Virginia near the Maryland border last week appear to at least remotely match the description of Masoller. Ocean City Police said this week they were aware of the discovery in West Virginia and were exploring a possible link to its open homicide investigation.
“It is certainly not out of the realm of possibility that this is our guy from 2005,” said OCPD Public Information Officer Lindsay O’Neal this week. “Our detectives are looking into it and have been in contact with the West Virginia police about the remains that were found.”
From the beginning, the investigation centered around two main suspects, both of whom were part of Masoller’s contracting crew and were among the last known to see him alive. One of the suspects, Jose Damian Hernandez, was convicted in September 2005 on a theft charge related to the victim’s stolen vehicle, which was later recovered, along with Hernandez, in Columbus, Ohio. Hernandez was sentenced to five years in jail, but he has since been released and has been deported to his native El Salvador.
Meanwhile, the other main suspect, known to OCPD detectives for a long time only as “Beto,” remains at large and could provide a vital piece of missing information in the case. In 2006, resort detectives learned the true identity of “Beto” and are actively seeking the suspect. Beto has been identified as Jose Roberto Orellana Romero, 33, with no fixed address. Romero’s most recent address available is in Columbus, Ohio, where Hernandez was ultimately arrested on the theft charges, but resort detectives believe he could have fled to his native El Salvador.
After determining Romero’s identity, OCPD detectives were able to secure a warrant for his arrest, charging him with multiple counts of felony theft for his role in the incident. However, as the years go by and the trail runs cold, hopes of finding Romero grow increasingly remote.
Meanwhile, the recovery of Masoller’s stolen van and the suspect, Hernandez, in Columbus, Ohio in the months following Masoller’s disappearance lends some credence to the possibility of his remains being found in West Virginia. The suspects’ route from Ocean City to the victim’s home in Springfield and ultimately Columbus, Ohio certainly could have taken them through the West Virginia panhandle where the remains were found last week.
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