MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Police Department has identified the man whose body was found in a van at an MPD impound lot after 49 days.
The victim is 33-year-old Bardomiano Perez Hernandez.
Hernandez was initially shot in the 3000 block of Yale Dec. 18, 2017 when three men attempted to rob a van that he and two other men were in.
The driver of the van was critically injured and spent weeks in the hospital. The passenger suffered no injuries.
Hernandez was found by the driver who went to retrieve his car after the city warned that it would be auctioned off or towed.
In an interview with WREG, Maris Morales, who has a child with Hernandez, said he was from Oaxaca, Mexico and was in the United States illegally.
She said he came to the U.S. in 2006. They met on social media in 2010 and moved together from Florida to Memphis in 2013.
Morales described Hernandez as a hard worker in construction and at restaurants.
They have a 1-year-old child together and although they separated in June 2017, he treated her children from another relationship like his own, she said.
She says she last spoke with Hernandez Dec. 16, 2017, two days before the shooting.
Morales says she called hospitals after finding out Hernandez was a victim of a robbery, but could not locate him. She didn’t file a missing person report, because friends told her he left town on a construction job.
She positively identified his body for police Thursday.
“His body was getting decomposed. It was there for a long time in the van. Nobody knew,” she said.
No arrests have been made.
She planned to meet with an attorney Friday to consider legal action.
“Do an investigation the right way,” she said to Memphis Police.
Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at (901)-528-CASH.