In the crisp late autumn of Milwaukee, the life of 58-year-old Hispanic female, Lillian Feliciano, came to a tragic and violent end. On the morning of November 23, 2024, her body was discovered, left unclothed in an alley in the 2000 block of South 8th Street. The grim discovery was made by a passerby who immediately alerted the authorities. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office would later classify her death as a homicide, determining the cause to be strangulation.
It was reported that Feliciano was homeless at the time of her death.
The investigation into Feliciano's murder led Milwaukee police to 31-year-old Joshua S. Santos. Through the use of video surveillance footage from the area, law enforcement was able to connect Santos to the crime. Upon his arrest, Santos confessed to the killing of Feliciano. He recounted to investigators that he had picked her up and they had proceeded to purchase and use drugs together. An argument then erupted between them, which Santos claimed escalated to a point where he panicked and strangled her with a belt.
Following the murder, Santos admitted to leaving Feliciano's body in his vehicle overnight before abandoning her in the alley where she was later found. He now faces a charge of first-degree intentional homicide. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A cash bail was set at $350,500, and the court ordered a competency examination for Santos to determine his fitness to stand trial.
