Body found in Madison County

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By The Associated Press

MADISON — A body found in a wooded area of Madison County is likely that of a man reported missing five years ago, authorities said.

The case may be connected to the men who killed five people during a Norfolk bank robbery in 2002.

County Attorney Joe Smith said Tuesday that he has a great degree of confidence that autopsy and dental records will confirm that the body is that of Robert Pearson Jr. of Norfolk. Smith said he had already notified Pearson’s family.

Officials called the case an “obvious homicide” but declined to say how Pearson died.

Pearson was reported missing in January 2002 by his mother.

The body was found in a shallow grave Monday night, Smith said.

Smith said his office had a good idea who killed Pearson, but he refused to name the suspect or suspects or rule anyone out, including the men convicted in the 2002 Norfolk bank slayings.

“I don’t think it would be helpful at this time to do it,” Smith said. “But we certainly have a very good idea who did that, but we need to do a lot more work.”

Smith said the public should not be worried because he does not believe a potential murderer is on the loose.

Erick Vela, Jose Sandoval and Jorge Galindo have all been sentenced to death for helping kill five people at a U.S. Bank branch in Norfolk in 2002. The fourth bank killer, Gabriel Rodriguez, was given five consecutive life sentences.

Smith has said that Vela, Sandoval and Galindo also killed Travis Lundell in August 2002 about a month before the bank murders. Lundell’s body was found in a shallow grave outside Norfolk in March 2003.

No one has been charged in Lundell’s death, but separate juries found Vela and Galindo eligible for the death penalty in part because they believed the evidence showed the two helped kill Lundell, giving them histories of violent crime.

Smith said this case has similarities to the murder of Travis Lundell but would not comment further.