Robert Marcus Perez, a 39-year-old man from Merced, was found dead in an apartment at 925 Loughborough Drive in Merced at approximately 4 a.m. on Sunday, November 11, 2001. According to Merced police Detective Don King, Perez's body was discovered by three people who had gone to the apartment looking for a party. Investigators believed that Perez had already been dead for several days by the time he was found.
His identity was initially withheld while authorities notified his next of kin, and Merced County Coroner's Office spokesman Sgt. Tom Cavallero later confirmed that the deceased was Robert Perez of Merced.
The circumstances surrounding Perez's death were not immediately clear. Police did not publicly describe visible injuries or disclose evidence showing exactly how he died. Because of the nature of the circumstances in which his body was discovered, investigators classified the death as suspicious while awaiting additional medical findings. An autopsy was performed on the Tuesday following the discovery, but the results were not released at that time. A representative of the coroner's office said investigators were waiting for toxicology testing, which was expected to take approximately six to eight weeks. The contemporary newspaper report therefore stopped short of officially calling Perez's death a homicide and did not provide a final cause or manner of death.
The fact that three people arrived at the apartment looking for a party and unexpectedly discovered Perez added an unusual element to the case, but the published report did not identify those individuals as suspects or indicate that police believed they were involved in his death. Detective King was identified as the investigator handling the case, but no suspect was named in the newspaper account. The report also did not describe any arrests, warrants, criminal charges, or evidence connecting another person to Perez's death. There was likewise no publicly reported prosecution, trial, or conviction associated with the incident in the information provided.
Perez had connections to several communities in the East Bay before moving to Merced. His obituary described him as a former longtime resident of Hayward and said that he was working as a warehouseman for Riverboat Casino at the time of his death. Away from work, he enjoyed riding his bicycle, playing golf, and listening to music. His family remembered him as a devoted father, son, brother, and friend.
He was survived by his daughter, Marcella Perez of Hayward; his mother and stepfather, Lorraine E. and Thomas R. Bingham of San Leandro; his father, Robert L. Perez of San Leandro; his brother, Jack S. Perez, and Jack's wife Diane of Hayward; and his sister, Yvonne Apodaca, and her husband Jeffrey of San Lorenzo. He also left behind three nieces, three nephews, and other extended family members and friends. A celebration of his life was scheduled for the Friday following his death at Grissom's San Lorenzo Chapel/Mortuary in San Lorenzo.
The contemporary reporting leaves the most important questions unresolved. Perez was known to have been dead for several days before his body was discovered, but authorities had not yet determined—or at least had not publicly disclosed—what caused his death. Toxicology testing was still pending, and police were treating the case as suspicious rather than announcing a confirmed homicide. No person was publicly identified as a suspect, and no arrest or criminal charge was reported in connection with his death in the newspaper information provided.
