Posted on Sun, Jun. 24, 2012

Coconut Creek police pulled up in the parking lot at a Hillsboro Boulevard swingers club after a call came in at 5:22 a.m. reporting a car crash: An Audi had smashed into two cars in the parking lot of Deenie’s Hideaway, a swingers nightclub.

Behind the wheel, arriving officers found 31-year-old David Mauricio Castro. He was alive, but had suffered a gun blast to the head. That was June 10.

This week, his mother, fiancée, ex-wife, children and friends cremated him, with few answers about what happened to him that night.

Castro’s family said the Boca Raton resident was a hard-working, stubborn type of man — the kind who worked three jobs and earned two degrees so his waist-high sons could have easier lives.

“He cared a lot for people,” said his ex-wife, Leslie Marles. But after their divorce, he once-calm man whose main focus had been school and work embraced a party lifestyle, she said.

“He was a man who had a lot of secrets, even from me,” said Erin DeFilippi, Castro’s fiancée.

The week before the incident, DeFilippi fought with him. She swore all this late-night drinking would kill him.

“You don’t know what I think when you’re out and when I don’t know where you are,” 30-year-old DeFilippi told him. “I think the worst.”

Their relationship was getting better after years of struggle. The couple was starting to talk about the future, to make plans.

Then, one night, Castro didn’t come home after a night of drinking. After it happened a few times, DeFilippi told him she wouldn’t put up with it anymore.

“I think you’re going to get in a car accident,” she told him, “and I’m going to have the cops knocking on my door the next day.”

The next weekend, she woke to a Coconut Creek policewoman on her doorstep.

Police haven’t released much information about the incident, other than a crash was reported at the club at 5011 Hillsboro Blvd. and a wounded man was found inside the car.

Detectives have filled in some of the blanks for Marles and DeFilippi, but the main question: Why? – remains unanswered.

The night before he was shot, Castro and DeFilippi had gone out for a belated celebration for Castro’s 31st birthday. They had a few drinks, but DeFilippi wasn’t feeling well, so Castro took her back to their home.

Around 3:30 a.m., Castro told his fiancée that he was going to run out for cigarettes. When he didn’t come home a half-hour later, she called his cell phone.

He had run into friends, he told her, and was going to get a few drinks with them at TW’s Lounge at 23269 State Rd. 7. It was the last time they spoke.

The club Castro was found shot at was a few blocks from TW’s Lounge. DeFilippi said police told her that it’s likely that after Castro was shot, he staggered into his car and drove to Deenie’s Hideaway, where he crashed and passed out.

He died in the hospital a week later after being taken off life support. Castro’s mother took his ashes back to Colombia to put in a mausoleum.

Family speculate that Castro, emboldened by liquor, angered the wrong person or that someone simply wanted to steal his Audi A4 Quattro Turbo.

Regardless of how it happened, they hold out hope that police will find whoever shot Castro.

“Nobody knows what happened that night,” Marles said. “Whoever did this is still out there. And for all we know, you might be next, and that’s scary.”

Anyone with information about Castro’s death, should contact Coconut Creek police at 954-973-6700 or Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.