Kevin Isaza

DALTON, Ga. — A third man has been charged with murder in connection with the discovery of a burned body near Carbondale Road earlier this year.

Kevin Isaza, 24, of Antioch, Tenn., was arrested by U.S. Marshals in California over the weekend and brought to Whitfield County. He was booked into the Whitfield County jail on Monday on a murder charge.

“We believe he was with the two others involved in the actual murder,” said Rick Swiney with the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office. “We are still investigating and don’t know if there will be any additional arrests. We are still looking into it and the case remains under investigation.”

Three men have been arrested in connection with the death of Luis Antonio Lopez, who authorities said was shot and killed before being brought to Whitfield County and set on fire in the woods at the end of Ellis Road in the southern part of the county near I-75. A 13-year-old boy found Lopez’s body on Jan. 10.

Roberto Viera-Aybar and Hector Ruiz, both of Tennessee, remain in custody on murder charges as well. Viera-Aybar is being held at the Whitfield County jail, while Ruiz is in custody in a Nashville area jail. District Attorney Bert Poston said this morning he did not know when Ruiz would be extradicted to Whitfield County.

Swiney said investigators linked Isaza to the killing, but before he could be arrested he fled to California. After getting warrants for his arrest, Swiney said the sheriff’s office contacted the U.S. Marshal’s office for help when information was developed that Isaza had fled to California.

According to a February press release from the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office, investigators with the sheriff’s office and agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation made several trips to the Nashville and Murfreesboro, Tenn., areas for interviews and to secure evidence. On Feb. 16, evidence was presented to a Whitfield County Magistrate judge and murder warrants were issued. The United States Marshals Service was notified of the murder warrants and started searching for the suspects. Marshals located and arrested both suspects

Lopez, 26, had been arrested in Nashville last summer as part of a large-scale marijuana “grow and distribution network,” according to information on the website of the Metro Government of Nashville and Davidson County dated June 15, 2016. Lopez was one of 11 people arrested following a two-year investigation by the Metro Nashville Police Department, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Homeland Security and the Nashville District Attorney’s Office. The information said Cuban nationals ran the operation. The Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Ruiz was also arrested as a result of that investigation.

The local sheriff’s office says investigators believed Lopez may have been murdered in Tennessee and the body driven to Whitfield County to dispose of it. It appeared the body was placed and partially burned less than 24 hours before it was discovered.