DAYTONA BEACH -- Deathly ill from the effects of AIDS and hepatitis, friends and neighbors weren't surprised to learn of Michael Bobo's death on May 19, A Volusia Sheriff's spokesman said.
However, how the 52-year-old's body ended up at a Daytona Beach landfill amidst a pile of discarded recyclables remained a mystery. This week, Sheriff's investigators solved the mystery with the arrest of Bobo's former roommate and lover, 27-year-old Donald Richert, agency spokesman Gary Davidson said this afternoon.
"After Bobo's demise, investigators believe Richert cranked up the air conditioning to preserve the body and conceal the death and then sold
off some of Bobo's possessions to fuel a drug habit before tossing the body in a dumpster," Davidson said.
Workers at a recycling facility at the Tomoka Landfill just west of Daytona Beach found the body on May 19. While Sheriff's investigators found no signs of foul play in the death, they set out to determine how the victim's body got shoved into a plastic bag and discarded.
Their investigation quickly led them to Richert, who had lived with Bobo for about five years as his partner and caregiver, Davidson said. But it was Bobo's neighbors who first called Holly Hill police on April 29, concerned for the sickly man whom they hadn't seen for weeks. When
police interviewed Richert at the time, he told them that Bobo hadn't come home for two days and that he was despondent over his health
problems and may even have been suicidal, Davidson said.
After Bobo's body was found at the landfill on May 19, the Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office concluded that the victim had been dead for anywhere between five days to three week, Davidson said.
The preliminary cause of death appeared to be from complications due to AIDS and hepatitis, however the autopsy results aren't final yet, the Sheriff's spokesman said.
After discovering the victim's name, Sheriff's deputies went to Bobo's residence at 115 Boswell Drive to investigate. When they got there, they found the victim's travel trailer and van missing and Richert nowhere to be found. Investigators later discovered that Richert had sold Bobo's trailer for $600 and also had sold or pawned electronic equipment stripped from Bobo's van.
"The man who bought the trailer said the odor inside it was so foul that it caused him to throw up," Davidson said. "Meanwhile, friends and neighbors filled in the rest of the puzzle for inquiring investigators. One neighbor said that she went into Bobo's trailer to care for his dog and discovered the temperature inside the trailer was set to 30 degrees and there was a foul odor that she couldn't identify.
The investigation ultimately led to a friend of Richert's, who said he helped Richert clean up the trailer to sell it, but didn't know anything about Bobo's death, Davidson said.
Richert had told him that a relative had died and left him the trailer. The friend also said the two of them removed electronic equipment from the van, sold the equipment and used the money to buy crack cocaine.
Eventually, the friend said that Richert admitted to storing Bobo's body in a compartment under the bed in the victim's trailer for days and then tossing it in a recycling dumpster in Daytona Beach, Davidson said. A recycling truck then picked up the load with Bobo's body and brought it to the landfill.
By May 27, two warrants unrelated to the investigation into Bobo's death had been issued for Richert charging him with probation violations
associated with past convictions for grand theft and dealing in stolen property. He was picked up the same day by Daytona Beach police, who also recovered Bobo's van the following day.
Richert, who has been in jail ever since, refused to talk to Sheriff's investigators about Bobo's death. However, after consulting with prosecutors at the State Attorney's Office, Sheriff's investigators presented their findings on Monday to Circuit Court Judge Michael Hutcheson.
"In conclusion, the defendant committed this offense with the intent to conceal the victim's death for financial gain," the case agent, Sheriff's investigator Mike Campanella, wrote in the charging affidavit.
Hutcheson issued a warrant charging Richert with unlawful disturbance of a body, a first-degree
misdemeanor. The warrant was served on Richert on Monday in his jail cell.