A Miami man was arrested March 10 in the 2024 killing of nurse Linda Campitelli after Palm Beach County investigators said phone data, surveillance footage and forensic evidence tied him to the night she was found dead beside her vehicle on Lyons Road.
The arrest pushed a long-unsolved Palm Beach County homicide back into public view and shifted the case from an open investigation to a first-degree murder prosecution. Rene J. Perez, 38, is charged with first-degree murder with a deadly weapon and tampering with physical evidence in the death of Campitelli, 35. Investigators have publicly laid out a detailed timeline in a probable cause affidavit, but they still have not publicly described a motive beyond the events they say led to her death. Perez appeared in court March 11 and was held without bond.
Campitelli was found late on Oct. 28, 2024, after deputies were sent to the 6100 block of Lyons Road in suburban Lake Worth on a report of an unresponsive woman outside a vehicle. She was pronounced dead at the scene. In the months that followed, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said the medical examiner ruled her death a homicide caused by blunt-force trauma to the head and torso. Detectives later said they found a significant amount of blood inside her Chevrolet Tahoe and injuries that suggested she had been dragged from one location to another. The arrest affidavit says investigators eventually concluded Campitelli had met Perez that night after the two exchanged messages about a belated birthday celebration. According to the affidavit, both were married to other people and had been in a romantic relationship for about two years after meeting through work. Local TV stations that reviewed the affidavit reported that the two had communicated through WhatsApp almost daily before the killing.
The account laid out by investigators depends heavily on records rather than on a confession. Detectives reconstructed the evening using cellphone data, hospital key-card logs, GPS and Life360 records, license-plate-reader hits and surveillance video, according to CBS12. WPTV reported that surveillance footage showed Campitelli’s Tahoe arriving that night at the Retina Group of Florida building in Wellington, where Perez had previously worked, and leaving shortly before 10 p.m. Investigators also said a photo recovered from Campitelli’s phone showed the back of the SUV prepared with a birthday blanket and medical sheets. Those details became part of the state’s theory that the meeting was planned in advance and that Campitelli had gone to meet Perez rather than strangers or an unknown attacker. WPBF reported that one message cited in the affidavit showed Campitelli asking the night before whether the plan for the next day was “100% sure,” and investigators said Perez replied that it was. Those messages, detectives say, undercut later statements in which Perez denied meeting her that night.
Investigators say Perez gave them an account that did not match the digital trail. According to local reports summarizing the affidavit, Perez told detectives the birthday plans had been canceled and said he did not leave his job at Delray Medical Center that night. But the affidavit says surveillance video showed his vehicle leaving the medical center and returning hours later, while his phone had been left behind. WPBF reported that investigators also said Perez came back wearing different shoes. The sheriff’s office has not publicly released the full affidavit itself through its own website, but several South Florida stations described the same core pattern: Campitelli’s movements, Perez’s vehicle activity and the forensic findings in the Tahoe all pointed detectives toward him over time. NBC6 reported that the arrest came after investigators obtained a warrant and found Perez in Miami on March 10. By then, the case had remained open for more than a year, with Campitelli’s family and friends publicly asking for answers as detectives continued to work through records and forensic evidence.
The public record still leaves some important questions unanswered. Investigators have described the evidence they say links Perez to the killing, but they have not publicly explained why they believe Campitelli was killed, what they think happened in the minutes immediately before the fatal violence, or what object they believe was used. Some reports based on the affidavit described a violent assault and possible efforts to move or conceal evidence, but prosecutors have not yet presented their case at trial and Perez has not been convicted. That distinction matters. At this stage, the most detailed narrative comes from the sheriff’s probable cause affidavit, which is designed to explain why detectives believed there was enough evidence for an arrest. It is not a final finding of fact. The court process will determine which parts of that account hold up under challenge, whether additional evidence is introduced and whether the defense disputes the state’s digital reconstruction of the night Campitelli died.
Campitelli’s death has also carried a wider emotional weight in Palm Beach County because of who she was and how the case unfolded. Family members and friends publicly described her as a nurse, a mother and a deeply loved part of her community. WFLX reported that her mother said the arrest brought a measure of closure even as the grief remained. The same report said Campitelli’s husband continues to care for the couple’s children. The arrest affidavit’s description of a hidden relationship added another painful layer to the case, but it did not change the central public reality: a 35-year-old woman was found dead beside her SUV on a county road, and the people closest to her spent months waiting for investigators to name a suspect. When Palm Beach County authorities announced the arrest, Col. Talal Masri said detectives in the violent crimes division had worked for more than a year to identify a suspect and bring the case forward. That statement underscored how much of the case was built slowly, through records and reconstruction rather than through an immediate break.
The legal process is now moving ahead in Palm Beach County court. Perez is charged with first-degree murder with a deadly weapon and tampering with physical evidence, and local outlets reported that he was held without bond after his first appearance March 11. Prosecutors have not publicly laid out a full trial calendar, and no plea was reported in the early court coverage. The next major steps are likely to include formal charging review, discovery exchanges, pretrial hearings and possible motions over the admissibility of phone data, surveillance footage and forensic evidence. Because the state’s case appears to rely heavily on digital records and investigative reconstruction, those materials are likely to play a major role as the prosecution advances. The defense position also remains only partly visible in public, since the first wave of reporting focused mainly on the arrest affidavit and initial hearing rather than on any extended response from Perez or his lawyer.
The case now stands at a clear but early stage. Investigators have named their suspect, prosecutors have filed serious charges and the county court system has begun handling the case. What remains unresolved is the question a jury would eventually have to decide: whether the evidence described in the affidavit proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Perez killed Campitelli and then tried to hide what happened on Lyons Road.
Author note: Last updated March 18, 2026.