Michael Anthony Mickey Sodoro, 70, a White male, was a well-known Omaha realtor who met a prospective tenant at a recently purchased family rental home near 193rd Street and W on December 28, 2020. He did not return home that night, and in the early hours of December 29 his family reported him missing. Deputies entered the West Omaha house using a garage code provided by his son and discovered Sodoro hidden in a ground-level crawl space, covered with loose carpet pieces.
An autopsy determined he had been killed by a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. His pickup truck was found parked and locked several blocks away.
Investigators documented blood on a stair railing, a sweatshirt, carpet, a pantry closet, and in an upstairs bathroom. A forensic team lifted two palm prints including one in blood from the bathtub; both were identified as belonging to Ross S. Lorello III, the man Sodoro had arranged to meet at the property. A witness had also reported seeing a black Ford Edge at the home and supplied a partial license plate, which led deputies to search a vehicle associated with Lorello s fianc e. Inside the trunk, they recovered a revolver containing five live rounds and one spent casing.
On December 30, 2020, the Douglas County Sheriff s Office announced that Lorello, then 43, had been booked into the county jail on one count of criminal homicide in connection with Sodoro s death. Authorities said evidence indicated Sodoro had been showing the house to Lorello at the time he was killed.
The case proceeded to trial in early 2022. A Douglas County jury found Lorello guilty of first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, concluding that he shot Sodoro during the purported rental meeting and concealed the body in the garage crawl space. In May 2022, a judge sentenced Lorello to life imprisonment for the murder, plus an additional 47 to 50 years for the weapons conviction. Prosecutors described the crime as a terribly violent, tragic end, and noted evidence that included doorbell video and extensive blood spatter linking Lorello to the killing.
