Two men are facing murder charges after the grim discovery of a body near a Grand Rapids creek last December sparked an investigation, police have announced. Forty-seven-year-old Omi Medina-Pagan and thirty-six-year-old Elitud Lazaro were slapped with felony murder and armed robbery counts for the death of 26-year-old Pacifique Uwimana, whose corpse was found at Roosevelt Park, as WZZM13 reported.
According to the Grand Rapids Police Department, they responded to a call on Dec. 16, 2023, at approximately 10:40 a.m. and uncovered Uwimana’s lifeless body along Plaster Creek the victims death, which was later ruled a homicide by the medical examiner, appears to have been the result of an armed robbery gone terribly wrong, Grand Rapids Police assert that both Medina-Pagan and Lazaro were already in custody for related crimes when they were handed their latest charges according to WOODTV.
Medina-Pagan, in addition to murder and robbery charges, is accused of lying during a violent crime investigation—further entangling an already dark and convoluted case. Jail records from Kent County reveal Medina-Pagan had been held since December 26 while Lazaro had been behind bars since January 30, although specifics regarding their prior charges were not disclosed by authorities, FOX17Online reports.
The duo, now enmeshed in the serious allegations of the death, remains confined in the Kent County Correctional Facility both men were implicated after a tip led investigators to the scene near the waterway and since then the investigation has unwound revealing a tapestry of violence and deception that now places Medina-Pagan and Lazaro at its very center.
