Uber Eats Driver Dismembered, Concealed In Trash Bags At Holiday Home

Update: Kathy Cooke, the wife of Uber Eats driver Randall Cooke, has spoken with Patch and given permission to use his name. Additionally, Sheriff Chris Nocco said the young people who visited Oscar Solis Jr.'s home have been identified.

HOLIDAY, FL — A Holiday man has been charged in the killing and dismembering of an UberEats driver who made a food delivery, an attack that Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco described as nothing short of "demonic."

"I don't want to get into how gruesome this case was," Nocco said during a news conference Tuesday. "This is horrible. This family (the victim's) is going to have to live with this. Our prayers are with them."

The last customer the driver saw was Oscar Solis Jr., 30, who is charged with killing the driver. Authorities described Solis as a recent prison inmate in Indiana and a member of the violent MS-13 gang.

"This was just an absolutely horrific crime. This person is demonic. What he did was demonic," Nocco said. "This person killed for no reason. There doesn't appear to be any relationship. This person killed him for no reason."

Nocco described the victim as a loving, hardworking husband who worked for both Uber Eats and DoorDash. Authorities do not plan to publicly identify the victim and investigators have not found any connection between the men.

Related: Wife Of Pasco Uber Eats Driver Brutally Killed Says She Lost Soulmate

"He was just a guy like anybody else trying to make a living for his family," the sheriff said.

On April 19 at 2:30 p.m., the man dropped his wife off at their home in Holiday and then began his deliveries for Uber Eats.

"At 6:43, his wife sent him a text and he responds back, 'Yeah, this is basically my last one and I'll be home soon,'" Nocco said.

The delivery was at a home at 3438 Moog Road in Holiday, right around the corner from the victim's home.

At 7:13 p.m., the delivery driver's wife texted him again to see what the holdup was.

"There was no response back," the sheriff said.

Concerned, she reported him missing to the sheriff's office, and a patrol unit went to his last delivery address — the home of Solis, who is charged with killing the driver. The missing driver's remains were found at the house in trash bags and a cooler, which also contained a receipt with Solis’ name on it, according to a police affidavit.

Detectives searching for the victim called Uber Eats, which provided the man's last-known GPS coordinates, which brought them back to the same house on Moog Road on April 21. Solis' roommate told officers he hadn't been home the night of April 19 so he knew nothing about the Uber Eats delivery, but offered detectives video from a surveillance camera mounted near the front door of the home.

The video presented a chilling scenario, said Nocco.

"You can see the victim walk up to deliver food at 6:55 and then the video cuts off," Nocco said. "The following day, on the 20th, you see the suspect, Oscar Solis, carrying trash bags out of the house with another individual and taking them around the side of the house."

The detectives got the roommate's permission to examine the several bags of trash and what they discovered was the stuff of nightmares.

"They found human remains," Nocco said.

The detectives promptly brought in the county medical examiner to examine the remains and the forensics unit to go over the house with a fine-toothed comb.

In the meantime, said Nocco, detectives arrested Solis for failing to register as a felon in Pasco County and for violating his parole in Indiana.

"That way, we knew there was no threat to the public. That's first and foremost our priority," he said.

As members of the media camped out behind the yellow crime scene tape, waiting to hear what happened, and neighbors watched as a parade of sheriff's vehicles drove up and down their street, Nocco said the investigators continued to collect evidence, including the victim's wedding ring and his car. The car was found about 30 miles away.

Finally, on Monday, Nocco said investigators had all the evidence they needed to charge Solis with felony murder and robbery.

Nocco said Solis moved to Florida from Indiana where he had a long history of run-ins with the law. Solis, who was affiliated with the gang M13 in Indiana, had a rap sheet of arrests that included aggravated battery, possession of stolen auto parts, resisting arrest, fraud and burglary.

While in an Indiana prison, Nocco said Solis stabbed someone several times.

"So you're talking about a very violent individual that Indiana released on parole and sent down to Florida, so now we have a hardworking guy, a loving husband who's no longer with us.," he said.

Investigators are still filling in gaps in the case, including the identities of some young people who were seen hanging around the house with Solis, who reportedly was into gaming.

He's asking those young people to come forward.

"These young adults aren't in trouble," he said. "We just need to know who they are because they were actually in the house an hour before the homicide occurred."

The house is owned by Solis' father and the roommate. The father moved out so his son could move in. By all appearances, said Nocco, his father wanted to help his son settle into a new life. He was the one to order the Uber Eats delivery for his son. He even sent a person over to the house to help with chores and drive Solis around.

Nocco said that's the same person seen on video helping Solis carry the trash bags out of the house, not knowing what they contained.

"We in Florida will bring justice to this family," Nocco said. "I assure you, there will be justice."

Nocco did ask that the public give the family some privacy and give the victim some dignity. Although a GoFundMe page has been posted naming the victim, out of respect for the family, Patch will not name him until the family has agreed to release the name.