Police solve 1999 murder with DNA, phone records

DNA evidence and clues from a cell phone helped police solve the drug-related slaying of a Park City man reported missing eight years ago, authorities said today.

Felipe Armondo Melendez-Rivas was murdered and buried behind a Milwaukee house. His body was discovered in 2005 by a Milwaukee police detective, but police didn't zero in on the suspected killers until last month.

Milwaukee County authorities today announced first-degree homicide charges against the two men they say killed Melendez-Rivas and another man.

Charged are Donald L. Cooper, 41, of 6060 N. 38th St., and Michael A. Lock, 36, of 4343 N. 15th St. Both are in custody.

If convicted, both men face life sentences.

Melendez-Rivas' roommate reported him missing to Park City police on Aug. 18, 1999, according to the Milwaukee County criminal complaint. Melendez-Rivas had borrowed the roommate's car eight days earlier but never returned.

The car was recovered in September 1999 at a motel parking lot near Midway Airport.

Melendez-Rivas remained missing until August 2005, when Milwaukee police found his body and another body under separate concrete slabs, the criminal complaint stated.

Authorities were able to identify Melendez-Rivas by comparing his DNA to that of his brother, who lives in Libertyville, police said.

Melendez-Rivas's cell phone was buried with him, authorities said. Using numbers in the phone's memory, investigators this summer were led to a man who knew Melendez-Rivas and who had introduced him years earlier to Lock, reports said.

Authorities learned Lock and another man had plotted to rob and kill Melendez-Rivas under the guise of a drug deal, reports indicated.

Lock and Cooper actually killed Melendez-Rivas, authorities said. With the help of the third man, they buried Melendez-Rivas in a hole dug the previous day, reports said.

Milwaukee County authorities say Lock and Cooper also killed a second man, Eugene Chaney, in 2000 during another drug-related robbery, authorities said. Chaney's body was discovered in a shallow grave under a second concrete slab near Melendez-Rivas's grave, authorities said.

Both Lock and Cooper already were held in Milwaukee County jail on other charges, records indicate.