Sacramento Sheriff's Office Cracks 10-Year-Old Cold Case Out Of Fair Oaks
FAIR OAKS (CBS13) — An arrest for murder 10 years in the making: the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office cracked a cold case out of Fair Oaks, involving a man murdered in his own home.
As of Thursday night, the case was still very active and urgent. The sheriff's office was able to arrest one man for murder this week but said there's still another suspect out there.
Homes off Winding Way in Fair Oaks are quiet and filled with families. Many of them still remember the murder inside a small home off this road 10 years ago.
"That's the murderer's house. Whoever bought it...there was a murder there," said Edward lopes, a neighbor.
On February 8, 2010, shortly after 1 a.m., the Sacramento County Sheriffs' office said two armed suspects forced their way into the home and demanded money from two brothers living inside. Those brothers refused and the suspects fired their guns. There was a scuffle and one of the brothers died.
The suspects got away.
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"He's the best brother ever...," said Mario Anton, the surviving brother, who CBS13 interviewed 10 years ago.
Anton said he tried to fight back against the intruders but next thing he knew the barrel of a gun was in his brother's face, and the trigger was pulled.
"He was conscious, he was like 'it hurts, it hurts.' He was in pain," Anton said.
At the time, deputies didn't know if the attack was planned or random, something they still have not explained.
Tony Rizzo has lived right around the corner from where this happened since 1958. He raised his entire family here.
"I had no fear...Because I took care of my own. That's the way I felt those days I was younger and I was capable," Rizzo said.
And now, deputies have arrested a suspect, 45-year-old John Francis Meskell, for murder. A new development after a decade of silence, most neighbors have long forgotten the crime, but not the family it affected.
"I hope everything comes to a resolution for them, that's all I can say," Rizzo said.
There are still a lot of questions about this case. How did deputies finally catch a suspect? Was it a tip that led them to him? CBS13 was told the sheriff's office can't release that information or even a mug shot of the suspect they caught because of how active this investigation still is and the ongoing search for that second suspect.