Authorities: Body found in Hercules, Calif., home is that of slain 73-year-old man’s son

Officials: Body found is that of missing Calif man

HERCULES, Calif. — Authorities confirmed Saturday that a body found in a northern California home is that of a 35-year-old man who had been missing since his father was found bludgeoned to death two weeks ago.

The Contra Costa County Coroner’s office positively identified the body of Frederick Sales through dental records, said Hercules police spokeswoman Doreen Mathews. The cause of death is still pending.

Police and FBI agents found Sales’ body Thursday when they returned to the home where his father, 73-year-old Ricardo Sales, was found dead earlier to collect additional evidence. It was heavily wrapped in three layers of plastic and a carpet behind a fake wall in a J-shaped closet under some stairs.

The body was sealed so tightly that no smells could escape, authorities have said.

A man who was shot and killed by the California Highway Patrol following a high-speed chase was a suspect in the death of the elder Sales. Ricardo Sales was found in the home on Aug. 27.

Police say they are certain that the suspect, Efren Valdemoro, was also behind the younger Sales’s death.

Valdemoro was also accused of strangling his girlfriend, Cindy Tran. Tran, 46, was killed while authorities were chasing Valdemoro, authorities said, and her body was found after the chase ended in Richmond.

Tran owned and lived in the Hercules home where the Sales’ stayed as housemates. Valdemoro had accused either the son or father of being romantically involved with Tran, according to authorities.

Valdemoro also has been linked to two Vallejo homicide victims.

The bodies of Segundina Allen, 63, and her friend, Marcaria Smart, 60, were found by police in Allen’s home on Aug. 31, the same day Valdemoro was shot dead by the CHP.

Allen had allowed Valdemoro to stay in her home off and on for about 10 years, authorities said.

Allen’s husband, Charles Rittenhouse, 72, stayed at the house for days without noticing the bodies, police said.

Rittenhouse later pleaded not guilty to explosives charges and has been released on bail. He has not been charged in the killing of the two women.