A San Diego man already in custody in connection with a homicide is being investigated as a person of interest after the remains of multiple people were found at a property where he once lived, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation said Wednesday.
The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office said earlier Wednesday that law enforcement named Dwight William Rhone, 74, as “a person of interest connected to an ongoing investigation” at a property in the Southcrest neighborhood of San Diego.
The office did not announce any charges against Rhone on Wednesday in connection with the human remains at the property, on Newton Avenue.
The office said that human remains were found there during a search Tuesday, but did not give more details on the remains.
Law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News that multiple human remains were located at the property.
The California Highway Patrol and the FBI found the remains during a search at a property where Rhone once lived as a tenant, the district attorney’s office said.
The FBI characterized the search in a statement as part of a “cold case investigation,” and the district attorney’s office said investigators with San Diego Police Department’s Cold Case/Missing Persons Unit assisted in Tuesday’s search.
Rhone has been in custody since late last year. He was arrested last December on a murder charge after Bernardo Moreno, 54, was found fatally shot on Interstate 5 on Oct. 18, 2023, the Highway Patrol has said. Moreno’s body had also been set on fire, it said.
“Detectives will be working with the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the identity of the remains and the cause of death,” San Diego police said in a statement Wednesday.
Online court records in the 2023 shooting case, which could list an attorney for Rhone, were not available Wednesday night. The district attorney’s office said Wednesday that Rhone was in custody in a homicide case in relation to Moreno’s death.
The Highway Patrol arrested Rhone in connection with Moreno’s death on Dec. 5, 2024, days before he was sentenced in another case.
He was sentenced to two years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of one count each of being a felon in possession of a firearm and being a felon in possession of ammunition, court records show.
Prosecutors wrote ahead of sentencing that Rhone has “a lengthy criminal history,” with 33 criminal offenses from 1963 to 2021.
