The Copley Police Department has released new details about the surviving victim in a triple homicide where the bodies of three men were found bound and gagged in two locations in Summit County.
On March 10, just after 7 a.m. and prior to the discovery of the bodies of the three men, Copley Police said the department received a call about a "rain-soaked male" walking in the area.
"He was soaking wet. He was cold. He was tired," said Copley Detective Mike Yovanno.
The man spoke little English, so responding officers used a translation app on a phone to communicate with him. He told officers he had been abandoned by his friends the night before. Police took the man to Haven of Rest Shelter in Akron and dropped him off.
Later that morning, the body of a man who had been bound and gagged and shot in the head was found in a ditch in the 2100 block of Wright Road. That person has been identified as Domingo Castillo-Reyes, 35, from Youngstown, according to the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office.
Officers then went back to the shelter and took the man to the police station. With the help of a translator from a federal law enforcement agency, officers interviewed the man. Authorities said the man made statements that connected him to scene where the body found on Wright Road.
The man told police that he had been kidnapped along with three other men who were from the Youngstown area. He went on to say that the kidnappers shot the man who was later found dead on Wright Road and shot him in the head, but he was only grazed by a bullet.
He had "played dead" until the kidnappers left and then got up and was attempting to walk back to Youngstown when police were notified about a man walking in the rain, police said.
"By the grace of God, the surviving victim was uninjured and he was able to flee the area once he felt the suspects had left the area," Yovanno said.
That afternoon, Copley Police were driving the man around to see if he could recognize the home where he had been held. When officers stopped at a Marathon gas station around 5 p.m., the man told police that he spotted someone there who was one of the kidnappers, authorities said.
That individual, later identified as Elias Gudino, 58, went with police to the station voluntarily and was later charged with aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder in connection with the two shootings in Copley.
Yovanno was amazed by the chance encounter at the gas station.
"This is a job where you get lucky sometimes. In a crime of this magnitude, we're fortunate that luck was on our side that day," Yovanno said.
Akron bodies found
That same morning, a man driving near Cordova Avenue and Redbush Road in Akron spotted two bodies in the woods. One was found face up and the other face down. Both had been bound and gagged, and each had been shot in the head.
The victims have been identified as Inmer Reyes, 25, and Victor Varela-Rodriguez, 31. Both are from Youngstown, according to the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office.
Akron police consider Gudino a suspect in the homicides, but he hasn't been charged in connection with the Akron men who were found bound and gagged. Akron and Copley police are working together in a joint investigation on the three homicides.
Authorities say more charges are pending against Gudino, and they believe there are additional people involved.
RELATED: Fourth bound and gagged victim found in Summit County survived
You can watch more about the case in the player below:
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