Honduran man, twice deported from US, charged with murders in Nashville after 2 bodies found

A Honduran national, who was previously deported twice from the U.S., was charged with two separate murders last week in Nashville after authorities say they found a “badly burned” body inside a torched car and a decomposing body in the trunk of a different car.

Kevin Castro-Garcia, 31, was charged in the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Elmer Nahum Miranda-Martinez, whose body was found Sept. 27 in a car that had been set on fire in a wooded area on Franklin Limestone Road, Nashville Metropolitan Police said Tuesday.

Detectives believe Miranda-Martinez was shot and killed before his body was stuffed into the trunk. The motive for the shooting remains under investigation, police said.

On Friday, police announced Castro-Garcia was also being charged with a second murder and abuse of a corpse after the decomposing body of 26-year-old Brandon Rivas-Noriega, of Nashville, was found in the trunk of a different car off Rural Hill Road.

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Kevin Castro-Garcia, 31, faces  two charges of homicide and a charge of abuse of a corpse. (Metro Nashville Police Department)

The 26-year-old was reported missing by his mother on Oct. 5 after family received text messages from him indicating that he was in trouble and needed money, FOX17 Nashville reported, citing police. The mother said she last saw him driving her 2015 Ford Focus just two days earlier.

The “badly burned” body of Elmer Nahum Miranda-Martinez, 37, was found inside the trunk of a car that had been set on fire in a wooded area off the 300 block of Franklin Limestone Road, police said. (Metro Nashville Police Department)

Detectives learned that the missing man would often visit a residence on Fanning Drive in the city’s Antioch neighborhood. During a search of the residence, investigators found the owner’s manual for a Ford Focus, Rivas-Noriega’s driver’s license and paperwork for property on Rural Hill Road.

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After arriving at the Rural Hill Road property, police said that detectives found a Ford Focus parked behind an abandoned trailer. The decomposing remains were found inside the trunk.

The remains were identified as Rivas-Noriega through an autopsy. Police said the victim died from multiple gunshot wounds, adding that several tattoos had been cut out from the man’s body.

Castro-Garcia remains jailed on $1.01 million bond, according to online jail records.

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Castro-Garcia is a native of Honduras. Police said he was deported from the U.S. in 2010 and 2018.