John Jefferson
Background: The Riverview, Florida, neighborhood where Joseph Romano was last seen alive (Google Maps). Inset (left): Joseph Romano (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System). Inset (right): Joseph Schiliro (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office).
A missing Florida man was found dismembered and buried in the backyard of a man who police say not only killed the victim, but swindled him out of “large sums of money” first.
Joseph Romano, 71, was reported missing on Jan. 16 after being seen alive for the last time at his apartment on Jan. 12. Following an investigation into his disappearance, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release that Romano’s dismembered remains were found on Feb. 13. Now, two men — Joseph Schiliro, 45, and Silviano Christman, 31 — are under arrest and charged with murder.
According to the release, the case took authorities all the way from Tampa, Florida, to New York City, where Christman was arrested on Feb. 20 by the New York Police Department’s Regional Fugitive Task Force. Schiliro was arrested in Pinellas County on Feb. 21 by a U.S. Marshals Task Force.
Romano’s remains were found on Schiliro’s property, buried in his backyard. Schiliro was previously witnessed attempting to get mail from Romano’s apartment after the older man went missing. The investigation also revealed that Christman came to Tampa from New York on Jan. 3, and Schiliro was with him. That was the same day that Romano last had contact with anyone he knew, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
Police believe that Romano was not just a victim of homicide, but also a victim of an “ongoing financial fraud scheme” that was allegedly connected to Schiliro. Detectives uncovered “large sums of money being transferred from the victim’s accounts to fraudulent accounts linked to Schiliro.”
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said, “The actions of these two men are despicable and deeply disturbing. Through deceit and violence, they exploited and took the life of another individual.”
Christman was charged with premeditated first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated first-degree murder, burglary with battery, abuse of a dead body, and fraudulent use of personally identifiable information of a deceased person. Schiliro was charged with premeditated first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit premeditated first-degree murder, burglary with battery, fraudulent use of personally identifiable information of a deceased person, fraudulent use of personally identifiable information, money laundering, and exploitation of a disabled adult.
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