-By John Lynds
Boston Fire Department Chief Stephen Paschal talks to reporters outside the crime scene at 877 Saratoga St. where 28-year-old Jaime Galdamez was allegedly killed by Marco Tulio Flores, 17, of East Boston Monday morning.
Boston Firefighters stumbled upon a gruesome scene Monday as they battled a small blaze at 877 Saratoga St. and found a man dead inside his bed–his hands reportedly bound and throat slashed.
Now a 17-year-old East Boston teen is charged with the murder of the sole occupant of the illegal apartment.
Boston Police Homicide investigators arrested Marco Tulio Flores, 17, of East Boston Tuesday morning in connection with Monday’s fatal fire that killed 28-year-old Jaime Galdamez.
Flores was arraigned in East Boston District Court on homicide charges.
On Monday morning just before 8 a.m. the Boston Fire Department responded to 877 Saratoga St. for reports of a small fire in the basement apartment.
Firefighters quickly put out the blaze and began searching for occupants in the smoke filled studio apartment. Firefighters said they located Galdamez on his bed and began dragging him to the back door but immediately noticed something was amiss.
“That is when we realized the victim would not be able to be revived so we called in Boston Police,” said Fire Department Chief Stephen Paschal.
Paschal would not comment any further at the scene because Boston homicide detectives had taken over. At the time it was unclear why the Boston Fire Department stopped what would be their normal course of action and did not remove Galdamez from the apartment and try to revive him as they would with most victims.
However, reports soon surfaced that Galdamez’s hands were bound and his throat slashed.
Paschal said that the fire department was simply trying to preserve a potential crime scene at the time they discovered Galdamez’s body and realized that he was already dead.
By Monday night it was obvious police were searching for a killer instead of investigating a small fire that included a fatality and had called Galdamez’s death ‘suspicious’.
On Tuesday police announced the arrest of Flores in connection with Galdamez’s death.
Galdamez was described by friends, family and neighbors as a quite, hardworking immigrant that came to the U.S. about 10 years ago from El Salvador.
This is the first homicide in East Boston in over two years.