Second Man Charged In Death Of Gay Senior Buried In Concrete 'Egg'

A second man has been charged with accessory to murder in the death of a gay senior who was buried in a concrete “egg” in California, reports gay weekly Gay and Lesbian Times.

Arlo Rene Elizarraraz, 19, of San Diego pleaded not guilty last week to a charge of accessory to murder. Police say he helped Thomas Jeffrey Brooks, 40, transfer a cement “egg” that contained the remains of 80-year-old Edward Clayton Andrews, whom Brooks has confessed killing, to its final destination: a rock garden in the backyard of an Alabama Street house in San Diego.

Andrews was last seen at his home on May 31 and reported missing on June 1 by family members who noticed his gray Saturn Ion missing from his Hemet – a Riverside community – trailer home on the 4200 block of Florida Avenue, while his cat was left behind.

Investigators say Andrews had been one of Brooks' “pen pals” while serving a four-year sentence in a federal prison in Victorville on child pornography charges. Upon leaving jail, Brooks bee-lined it to his pen pal's trailer, failing to report to a halfway house, and the two developed a romantic relationship.

Police arrested Brooks on August 8 at a San Diego 15^th Street apartment and he was arraigned in November. Brooks confessed to killing Andrews but would not reveal the location of the body.

Riverside sheriff's investigators later found that over $90,000 had been drained from the senior's bank account. One of Andrew's neighbors said he had received a letter purportedly written by the victim letting him know that he had gone on vacation with Brooks to Europe and South Africa.

Elizarraraz and Brooks met on the Internet when Brooks answered a plea for money from Elizarraraz on CraigsList. Brooks immediately put the 19-year-old to work in a sophisticated check forging scheme.

Brooks has said Elizarraraz was not involved in the murder of Andrews, but police say he was deceitful in some of his answers during a polygraph test administered on Dec. 1. Elizarraraz has admitted to helping carry Andrew's entombed body but says he was unaware it contained a dead body. He also says he was present when Brooks purchased the concrete.

The two men have also been charged with various unrelated crimes including conspiracy to commit grand theft, burglary and numerous forgery charges.

Several boarders sharing a house on Alabama Street in San Diego discovered Andrew's body in September when they cracked into a large concrete “egg,” sculpted by Brooks as the centerpiece of a backyard rock garden, to find a human foot accompanied by the dank stench of a decomposing corpse.

Brooks allegedly asphyxiated Andrews, wrapped him in a purple blanket and plastic tarp, secured by duct tape and chicken wire, then entombed his remains in the concrete “egg.”

The roommates said they opened the concrete tomb because they had read reports about Brooks and believed he might have stashed some of the missing money in the concrete “egg” he had created for their landlord.