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Sandra Yi ReportingEkolu de los Santos: "It's funny that a case like this falls in our lap because it rarely does happen that way, but we get lucky like that once in a while."
A year-old murder mystery out of California is solved here in Utah. A man walked into a truck stop in Woods Cross and made a shocking confession to police; he said he was wanted for murder.
The railroad tracks are only about 100 yards from this truck stop. Police believe the man jumped off a train and for some reason, chose this store, to turn himself in. His confession, if true, would solve the only unsolved murder case in a northern California town, in the past 10 years.
RB's truck stop in Woods Cross is a busy place. Clerk Susan Schultz deals with all kinds of customers. But one in particular won't be so easy to forget.
Susan Schultz: "I was standing behind the counter. He came in the door and had a grocery bag full of papers and came up to the counter and said, 'Would you please call the police?'"
She says it wasn't an unusual request.
Susan Schultz: "And I said, asked him what it was about. And he said, 'It's criminal', and so I said ok. I thought that he had witnessed something or just wanted to turn somebody in."
The man, Jose Castillo, did want to turn somebody in - himself, for a crime he claims to have committed a year ago.
Sgt. Ekolu de los Santos, Woods Cross Police Dept.: "He's a transient, not from our area, and I'm assuming that his conscience got to him."
Police say Castillo is the suspect in the murder of 63-year old Jimmy Lee Billy. It happened in Oroville, California, a town 70 miles north of Sacramento. Police say the victim's body was found in a rail yard last October. They believe he had been dead for a month.
The motive is a mystery, but the victim died from extreme trauma. Police named Castillo a suspect, but he was hard to find and the case went cold, until last week.
Sgt. Ekolu de los Santos: "He says he's been living off the railroad for a year since the crime happened, so he's been up and down from Ogden to California."
Oroville Police credit local authorities for their break. Susan Schultz didn't think she'd ever be a part of it.
Susan Schultz: "Kinda creepy to know that I talked to him. I didn't feel threatened by him or anything, I just did what he asked me to do."
Castillo waived extradition today and will be going back to California to face the murder charge. He also had a misdemeanor warrant for criminal trespassing in Ogden.
