California man had ‘compulsion to kill,’ then led police to two bodies, authorities say

Authorities in San José are investigating a man who they say approached a police officer last week, confessed to killing someone, then led the officer to a body. And then another body.

In what Santa Clara County Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Gadeberg said was an unusual set of circumstances, authorities allege that 28-year-old Marcelino Castro killed two people, possibly more, for reasons they still haven’t determined.

The first victim knew Castro; the second victim did not, Gadeberg said.

“The fact that he would progress to what appears to be a total stranger is certainly concerning and suggests there may not be a conventional motive other than compulsion to kill,” Gadeberg said.

Asked if there were possibly more victims, Gadeberg said he “wouldn’t be shocked.”

According to a department news release, Castro flagged down a San José Police officer on Sept. 19 at around 5:14 p.m. and confessed that he had killed someone. Officers responded to the area of Lelong and Alma avenues just off State Route 87 near a train station, where they found the body of a man in a shallow grave.

Castro then provided information about a possible second homicide about three miles away, police said, and led them to a second body.

“It’s an unusual case,” Gadeberg said, marveling at the allegations. “To have someone to plan out a murder, to lure someone that they know to a secluded location, to take their life, to take the opportunity to cool off and reflect and evade detection and then go on and take another life ... at random.”

Castro was arrested and booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on suspicion of murder. The motive and circumstances still are under investigation, and the identities of the dead haven’t been publicly released.

According to the statement of facts in Castro’s criminal complaint, he told police he buried the first body in a creek across from Tamien Station. He pointed to an opening in a wire fence leading to the Guadalupe River bed and said the grave was near a trail below the roadway.

Officers found a shallow grave and used shovels to find a body, which had a laceration across the neck, the document said.

Castro told officers he killed another person near the Guadalupe River Park trail and showed detectives where he left the body wrapped in a red tent, the complaint said. He told officers he lured the man to a secluded area to smoke, then strangled him and bludgeoned him with a rock, prosecutors said. He then wrapped the body in the tent and dropped it in the grass near the riverbank, according to the document.

Gadeberg said police believe the first homicide occurred on Sept. 13 and the second days later.

Castro tried to turn himself in at the county jail, Gadeberg said, but when deputies didn’t believe him, he flagged down an officer at police headquarters.