Man wanted for years is tracked down 100 miles from crime scene, SC police say
Years after a deadly shooting in the Midlands, a man has been tracked down and arrested despite trying to disguise his identity in another part of South Carolina, the Cayce Police Department said Thursday.
Alberto Osorio Mendoza, 37, was charged with murder, police said in a news release.
The charge is connected to a shooting death in 2021, according to the release.
Early in the morning on June 14, 2021, officers responded to reports of a suspicious vehicle in the Groover Circle area near the Westwood Mobile Home Park, police said. That’s in a part of Lexington County between I-26 and U.S. 321/Charleston Highway.
Officers found the vehicle and inside was a man slumped over the steering wheel, according to the release. He had been shot in the head, police said.
The man was identified as 42-year-old Jose L. Gonzalez, and he was pronounced dead at the scene from a single gunshot wound, Lexington County Coroner Margaret Fisher said in 2021.
No other injuries were reported.
An investigation determined that Gonzalez and Medoza had been together earlier that evening when an altercation occurred, leading to the victim being shot and the gunman leaving the scene, police said in the release. Information about what led to the altercation, and if the men knew each other prior to that night, was not available.
Throughout the investigation, Mendoza was found to have used multiple aliases in an effort to avoid being caught, according to the release.
When Mendoza was finally tracked down and arrested he was using an alias, police said.
Law enforcement closed in on Mendoza after the North Charleston Police Department recently received a tip about his location on Dec. 1, according to the release. That information was shared with the U.S. Marshals Service, which assisted locating Mendoza and taking him into custody, police said.
North Charleston is 100 miles from where Gonzalez’s body was found more than 4 years ago.
Mendoza was extradited to the Midlands and booked into the Lexington County Detention Center on Dec. 3, according to the release. Mendoza was denied bond and remains locked up, jail records show.
Lexington County court records show that Mendoza is listed as a Cayce resident, and he’s scheduled to return to court on Jan. 15, 2026.
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