Man charged with second-degree murder in 2012 shooting death

Three years after 21-year-old Adrian Lopez was found shot to death inside his Chevy Silverado in deep South Miami-Dade County, police believe they have captured his killer.

Christopher Luis Rivero, 23, showed up at police headquarters Wednesday and was promptly arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Police said Rivero voluntarily arrived for questioning before he was taken into custody.

Lopez was reported missing on Jan. 2, 2012 by family members who found it unusual that he hadn’t contacted them. His body was found three days later in the truck at Southwest 280th Street and 207th Avenue. Police wouldn’t go into detail about the three-year investigation, but said it was a combination of surveillance video and triangulating calls from cell phone towers that led to the arrest.

Police said within two hours of finding Lopez’s body in 2012, Rivero was spotted on camera leaping to grab a duffel bag on a trash bin behind a Publix supermarket near Cutler Bay. An officer questioned him about blood on a T-shirt in the bag, and Rivero told him it came from a basketball injury. The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner was then able to identify a fingerprint belonging to Lopez on Rivero’s car.

Rivero was released from custody with a promise to appear in court. Police wouldn’t say Wednesday why three years passed before he was arrested.

This story was originally published February 4, 2015 at 5:48 PM with the headline "Man charged with second-degree murder in 2012 shooting death."