Officials investigating death of Farmington man

FARMINGTON – The cause of death of a 21-year-old Mexican national whose body was found in a residence here Tuesday afternoon is under investigation, but at this point police say there have been “no indications of foul play found.”

Chief Rick Baker said the body of Omar N. Gamino was discovered by the woman with whom he had been sharing a house on Maple Ridge Drive. The body was on the floor of a utility room when the woman returned from work at about 4:30 p.m.

“An autopsy revealed no signs of physical trauma,” Baker said this morning, “and at this point the cause of death has not been determined. It will possibly be six to eight weeks before the toxicology reports from the autopsy come back and we may still not know the cause of death.”

Baker said the woman with whom Gamino was living said the young man has not been using drugs.

Gamino had worked on a fan in the attic on Monday night, Baker said. From what the woman told investigators, Gamino got very hot and suffered from the effects of the heat. There was evidence in the house that he had made some home-made ice packs to seek relief from the heat.

When the woman left for work Tuesday morning, Gamino was alive and appeared to be well. He was scheduled to be at work at a local restaurant at 10 a.m., but did not show up. When his boss called him after 10:30, Baker said, Gamino told the boss that he had overslept and would be at the restaurant soon.

A second telephone conversation about an hour later was further indication that Gamino was still alive at about noon, Baker said. It was about five hours later that the body was discovered.

Baker said that while there are no signs of foul play and no evidence of physical trauma, his department always handles an unattended death as a homicide investigation. He stressed that does not necessarily mean it is a murder investigation, noting the definition of homicide as the death of a person at the hands of another person.

“At this point, we cannot rule out anything,” Baker said. “We just look at everything we have and go from there. Right now, we are just waiting for the results of the toxicology report.”

The chief said Gamino came to Farmington from California. It appears that he was an illegal alien. While the identification they found indicates he was 21 years old, Baker said he looked much younger.

Relatives had visited Gamino over the Memorial Day weekend, according to the chief, but left Monday afternoon. Baker said the woman with whom Gamino was living told police Gamino was very happy to see the relatives and there were no problems.

Baker confirmed he had heard some of the rumors circulating in the community about the murder of an illegal alien. He said these probably started because his department placed police tape around the residence Tuesday and treated it as a crime scene.

The chief said this is standard procedure for his department in an “unattended death.”