Murder charges have been filed in the decapitation death of a man in an apartment in the Belmont Gardens neighborhood on the Northwest Side.
Alexis Valdez, 18, is charged with first-degree murder, police said.
The victim was identified today by the Cook County medical examiner's office as Silvestre Diaz-Hernandez. Officials determined that he died of multiple blunt and sharp force injuries and ruled his death a homicide.
Police discovered the grisly scene around 2:05 a.m. Christmas Day in the 2500 block of North Kildare Avenue, police said.
Responding officers found a decapitated body in a basement apartment, police said. The victim was 41, and his birthday would have been Sunday.
Valdez was taken into custody outside the building "without incident," police said. Officers recovered a knife.
The relationship between the 18-year-old and Diaz-Hernandez was not known. Police listed Valdez's address as the 5000 block of West Drummond Place in Chicago, about a mile and a half from where the body was found. Diaz-Hernandez lived at the home where his body was found, officials said.
Windows on the basement apartment on North Kildare were boarded up hours after the discovery, and drops of blood were visible by the passenger side of a black pickup truck parked in front of the apartment building.
Tribune reporter Bonnie Miller Ruben contributed.
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McClatchy-Tribune News Service
