Santa Rosa man suspected of decapitating relative arrested in San Francisco

A man suspected of decapitating his female relative in Santa Rosa before fleeing the scene on foot with the woman’s head in his possession, has been arrested in San Francisco, Santa Rosa Police announced Saturday.

Luis Gustavo Aroyo-Lopez, 24, of Santa Rosa, was taken into custody Saturday morning after an officer spotted him at the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco, Santa Rosa Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Patricia Seffens said Saturday.

Seffens said the victim’s head was not in Aroyo-Lopez’s possession at the time of his arrest, and police are actively searching for it.

Seffens called the suspect’s capture “good, old-fashioned police work” after an officer recognized Aroyo-Lopez from bulletins sent out by Santa Rosa Police with photographs of the suspect.

Police suspect Aroyo-Lopez of killing his relative, a woman who a department spokesperson said was in her 60s. Police declined to give the victim’s exact age or relation to the suspect, but on Friday neighbors said the victim was Aroyo-Lopez’s grandmother.

The home was in the 2500 block of Pomo Trail, a neighborhood just west of the Coddingtown Shopping Center.

Aroyo-Lopez was released from state prison Nov. 1, where he served time on assault with a deadly weapon and weapons possession charges for cases unrelated to Thursday’s victim, according to police.

“He was supposed to check in with the probation department by end of day November 2 and he did not,” Seffens said.

Early Saturday, Aroyo-Lopez was in custody in San Francisco, and Santa Rosa detectives had been dispatched south to interview him. Late Saturday afternoon, Seffens said Aroyo-Lopez was being transported from San Francisco for booking in Sonoma County jail.

On Friday, neighbors were stunned by the crime.

Manuel Calderon and his brother, Gustavo, on Friday afternoon were standing across the street from the home where the homicide occurred.

The Calderon brothers told a Press Democrat reporter they knew the dead woman’s husband, and that the couple was a friendly fixture around the neighborhood. Her husband often worked in his garage with the door open, they said.

“She was a very good person,” Manuel Calderon said. They often saw the couple spending time together.