In the early morning hours of July 11, 2016, a grim discovery was made in the parking lot of the Socastee Plaza near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Carmelo Marmolejo-Calixto, a 33-year-old Hispanic male, was found deceased, the victim of a fatal shooting. Another man, 31-year-old Rafael Aguilar, was also found dead at the scene from gunshot wounds. Both men were residents of the Myrtle Beach area.
The scene that greeted first responders was unsettling. A medical call around 7 a.m.
had reported a man lying on the ground next to a gold Chevrolet Astro van. Paramedics who arrived first confirmed the man, later identified as Aguilar, was deceased. Upon further investigation, police found Marmolejo-Calixto slumped over in the passenger seat of the van. The Horry County Deputy Coroner later confirmed that both men died from gunshot wounds to vital organs.
The double homicide was estimated to have occurred around 4:30 a.m. in the parking lot in front of the El Ya Merito restaurant. This violent incident unsettled the community, as it was the second homicide investigation in the same plaza in just over a month. In early June of that year, a 65-year-old woman had been found stabbed to death in the same parking lot, although authorities did not indicate a connection between the two cases.
Despite the efforts of the Horry County Police Department, the investigation into the murders of Carmelo Marmolejo-Calixto and Rafael Aguilar grew cold. Investigators reported that they had exhausted all leads in the case. With no arrests made and no suspects publicly identified, the police turned to the public for assistance, urging anyone with information, no matter how insignificant it might seem, to come forward. The case remains an unsolved double homicide, leaving the families of the two men without answers.
