FBI, Dominican police find body could be of missing American

Moca, Dominican Republic.- FBI agents accompanied by local authorities on Tuesday said they found on a farm in Moca (north) the dismembered body of a man presumably US businessman Brent Renault Lewis, who’d been missing since November 3, 2014 after selling his hotel La Perla in Sosua, Puerto Plata for US$500,000.

An elcaribe.com.do source close to the investigation confirmed that Mary Geraldine de la Rosa Bonilla, who managed the hotel for Lewis, had confessed to the murder together with fellow American expat Frank Sorichetti or Frankie Carleone. The two had been detained in connection with the case since January.

The source also said National Police and Justice Ministry officials are looking for the also foreigner Alex Branislav.

“Lewis was apparently mutilated and his body dumped in different places, because only one part was found," the source told El Caribe. “The businessman had been kidnapped in Sosua in early November and his whereabouts were unknown since.”

The body found last Friday in Moca was taken to Forensics in Santiago, where an autopsy aims to confirm its identity.