Clarksville Police Department officials have reopened a 2013 murder investigation after a man whose DNA profile matched a person of interest in the case was located in an Immigration Customs and Enforcement facility in Georgia, officials said in an Aug. 20 news release.
Salvadoran national Carlos Alberto Bonilla-Canenguez, 46, is set to be extradited to Indiana and faces murder charges in connection with the 2013 double homicide. Clarksville police spokesperson Justice Kraft said it is unclear when ICE will complete the extradition.
Officials opened an investigation into the murders in October 2013 after officers were called to a house fire in the 400 block of North Randolph Avenue in Clarksville. Investigators found two men stabbed to death inside the home, later identified as Amando “Miguel” Rodriguez Solis and Julio Caesar Ventura Monzon, as they worked to extinguish the fire, officials said.
Investigators collected DNA samples at the scene during the initial investigation and searched for a third man who lived at the home, officials said. Investigators were able to identify the resident as Bonilla-Canenguez and attempted searching for him for questioning, but he was never found, officials said.
ICE arrested Bonilla-Canenguez in July for an unknown reason and lodged him in a federal facility in Folkston, Georgia. Officials flagged his name and notified Clarksville police after learning he was a person of interest in the 2013 case, Kraft said.
A Clarksville police detective then traveled to the Georgia facility to collect a DNA sample from Bonilla-Canenguez, which matched the sample gathered in 2013, Kraft said.
Officials said current technology was a large part of being able to reopen the case.
“The Clarksville Police Department would like to remind the public that with the rapid advancements in modern technology, no case is ever truly cold,” officials said in the release.
Contact reporter Killian Baarlaer at kbaarlaer@gannett.com or @bkillian72 on X.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: ICE in custody of man charged for 2013 Clarksville, Indiana murders
