Underneath a stark, white cloth, you will find a body so mutilated, that it is hard for even police officers to look at.
Evie West, with the Cleveland Police Department, says, "It looks like they were just sawing away at the neck area. We believe their intentions were to decapitate the body, but due to the sharp object that they had, a knife, butcher knife, it wasn't able to cut through the spinal cord."
On the morning of January 23rd 2009, Fredy Perez could be seen opening his store Viva Mexico.
And like usual, he had his coffee and he had his doughnut, well, just a part of the doughnut, he never got a chance to finish it.
West adds, "When the wife had gotten there, she noticed that the doors were locked. When she looked inside the doors, she saw her husband's body laying there."
Perez was lying a pool of blood, face down, with layers of duct tape tightly wound around his hands, feet, and head.
Cliff Anderson, Perez's former pastor, says, "Probably the word would be shock. They didn't expect that. It's something they weren't expecting."
Family did not expect it, Perez's pastor did not expect it, and neither did the community, as they leaned on one another for support.
Anderson adds, "It's hard to understand how something like this happens to someone who, you know, doesn't get into anyone's affair's."
Police say the suspect or suspects had one thing on their mind, and it was not money.
That is because Perez had about $10,000 in cash, still in his coat pocket.
Now, police say, that amount of money was not usual for Perez because he frequently cashed checks for his customers.
West adds, "They were interested in sending this message and getting their point across, and they did."
But what was that point he or she was trying to make?
It is a question no one has been able to answer for years.
Signs or rewards have not been able to bring any justice to this now family of five.
West says, "The detectives on scene actually did an incredible job at looking at phone records, looking at mail, and talking to patrons that had come into the store the day before."
But even the most seasoned investigators could not find any damning evidence, not even a piece of DNA.
Someone walked in the store, murdered Perez, and walked out, without leaving a single trace.
If you have information about this murder, you are asked to call Cleveland Police.
