MISSOURI CITY — Detectives used credit card and cell phone records to track a 20-year-old man from Texas to Florida, where local and federal law officers are searching for him in the slaying of a man whose body was found on fire.Craig Joel Bolah was charged with murder in the death of John Fernandes, 23, Missouri City police Capt. John Bailey said Friday.

Fernandes, of Sugar Land, was shot and his body set on fire outside Bolah’s apartment in the 1800 block of Murphy Road. Bailey said Bolah and Fernandes were friends.

An autopsy showed Fernandes was dead before his body was burned. The autopsy also determined he died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Bailey said investigators believe Bolah plans to flee the country to the island nation of Grenada.

Body set on fire

The investigation started when police went to the Quail Valley Apartments a few minutes before 6 a.m. Thursday on a report of a body on fire.Officers found a burning body next to an apartment building and used a garden hose to douse the flames. Investigators then followed a trail of blood to a two-story apartment where they smelled gasoline and found the electric oven had been turned on, Bailey said.

“The place was absolutely soaked with gasoline. Obviously the intent was to set the apartment on fire,” Bailey said.

Bailey said it appears Fernandes was attacked in the apartment and then he was dragged outside and set on fire.

Shortly after the body was discovered, detectives began checking with nearby service stations to see if anyone had recently bought gasoline and filled a portable container.

“We got lucky,” Bailey said.

A clerk at a service station on Murphy Road, just down the street from Missouri City police headquarters, recalled selling gasoline to a man who used a credit card to fill up a car and a container about two hours before the body was reported.

“The problem was we couldn’t relate the name on the credit card receipt to anybody that we knew of in our case at that point,” he said.

Detectives also obtained surveillance video of the man making the purchase and then decided to monitor the credit card.

“Then we found out the card was used in Louisiana about four hours later, and it was used in Alabama about four hours later,” he said.

When the burned body was identified Thursday evening, police learned the credit card belonged to the victim.

“Somebody was using Fernandes’ credit card to leave the area,” he said.

Bailey said the suspect used Fernandes’ cell phone to make a call, and detectives were able to track the call to a cell tower in the Tallahassee area. Detectives also learned through interviews with several people that Bolah plans to return to his native Grenada. Missouri City police notified the FBI and federal immigration and customs officials to be on the lookout for Bolah.

Police have not determined a motive for the slaying.

Source www.chron.com.