3 men indictments for murder in body dumped in Whitfield County

NASHVILLE (WDEF) – Three men are behind bars, charged with killing a Middle Tennessee man, whose body was found in North Georgia.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says Hector Ruiz, Kevin Palacio, and Roberto Viera-Aybar were all indicted, charged with one count each of first degree murder.

They’re accused of killing Luis Lopez, of La Vergne, and disposing of his body.

The T-B-I says it starting investigating this case in January of last year, after Lopez’s partially-burned body was found in a wooded area near Dalton by a boy.

Investigators later discovered that Lopez was killed in Davidson County.

Ruiz is being held in the Davidson County Jail, where he already was on unrelated charges.

Palacio and Viera-Aybar are in a Georgia jail right now, waiting to be brought back to Nashville.

Here is our story from February of 2017.