An 18-year-old has been charged with murder and abuse of a corpse in the mysterious death of a Salem man, whose badly decayed remains were discovered in a duplex crawl space last month.
The grisly discovery happened on June 10, when officers were called to a duplex in northeast Salem by a family who reported smelling “a foul odor.” Investigators believed the subject to have been deceased for several weeks, but were unable to identify him.
A subsequent autopsy determined the cause of death was by homicide. After initial efforts to identify the victim were unsuccessful, the sheriff’s office released a sketch of one of the victim’s tattoos to seek the community’s help identifying the victim.
Thanks to the “many tips” investigators say they received from community members, the victim was positively identified as Josiah Bagnall, 18, of Salem.
Mosqueda-Rivera was arrested by detectives at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Building July 2 and lodged at the Marion County Jail on charges of murder, as well as first- and second-degree abuse of a corpse. No bail has been set.
