Body found in car in Del Valle

UPDATE: The Travis County Sheriff's Office has identified the man as Cesadio Rodriguez. Rodriguez's family and friends say he had been living in his car for about one month and had several health issues. 


The Travis County Sheriff's Office is investigating a body found in a car in Del Valle. They said someone called to report the body around 11 Saturday (1/7) morning.

The Suburban was found at the intersection of Highway 71 and Doctor Scott Drive. While detectives were called out to investigate the case as a possible homicide, the sheriff's office said nothing at the scene leads them to believe there was foul play involved.

The Travis County Sheriff's Office said that body has been identified as a Hispanic man in his 20s. So far they are unsure how long it was at that location before it was located.

“So we will be interviewing people who may have seen the vehicle to try and get an idea of how long it's been here and the medical examiner will conduct their investigation to determine cause of death and between the two of us, we'll try to put together a timeline and figure out what exactly happened,” said Kristen Dark, senior public information officer with the Travis County Sheriff’s office.  

The cause of death is still unclear but the sheriff's office is investigating every possibility.

“We have a major crimes detective here on the scene and so we will treat this as a homicide until we know that it's not, but at this point and time we have no obvious signs of foul play and we have no reason to believe it is a homicide, but until we can rule it out, we will treat it as such,” Dark said. 

This is the ninth body found in Del Valle in just five months. The other eight have been declared homicides.

“Of course it's a natural suspicion to wonder if maybe this is connected to the homicides that have taken place out here in Del Valle, but at this point and time we have no reason at all to suspect that is the case,” said Dark.

The sheriff's office said those in the area have no reason to be concerned. Although, they understand the public is already on edge after the number of homicides within the town in such a short time.