ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (WESH) — WESH 2 News has new details about a Florida man who was murdered, dismembered and dumped in a local lake.
Images show parts of the investigation at Lake Underhill in August after someone spotted Olivia Diggs’ body.
Images also provide an inside look into the work of detectives inside a home about a mile away as they gathered evidence to arrest a suspected killer.
As Rafael Gonzalez’s trial nears for the death of Diggs, a mother of three, WESH 2 News obtained more of the evidence against him, including crimes-scene photos from inside his Dorado Avenue home during a four-day investigation in which officers were heard ripping up floorboards.
Images show a Florida man’s bag photographed and a massive collection of knives.
Part of Diggs’ body was found on the shore of Lake Underhill on Aug. 22. The search of Gonzalez’ home didn’t start until September, but WESH 2 News also obtained a receipt in the file. It shows a nearly $140 purchase at the East Colonial Home Depot for cleaning products, air freshener and cases of peel and stick tile. That purchase was made on Aug. 23, the day after Diggs’ body was discovered.
Crime scene investigators took photos of cleaning products in a car parked at the home and Florida many photos of Gonzalez’s bedroom, where they believe he raped, then killed Diggs.
WESH 2 News learned last year that a jailhouse informant told Crimeline that Gonzalez told him he took her to a nearby lake hoping the alligators would eat her remains. That coincides with a handwritten note that talks about the lake being “best because of the gators.” WESH 2 News has reached out to the state attorney’s office to see if that comes from an interview with Gonzalez himself, or someone else.
Gonzalez heads to trial in the case scheduled for May 1.
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