LOVELOCK - Nevada Department of Public Safety Division of Investigations (NDI) is investigating the suspicious death of Lovelock resident Emigdio Herrera.
Just before 8 a.m. Monday, Oct. 10, Sheriff Deputies Jerry Allen and Eric Blondheim heard a woman's screams while outside of the Pershing County Sheriff's Office. The two deputies ran on foot to the corner of 9th St. and Cornell Ave. where the woman was screaming and calling to deputies, Pershing County Sheriff Rich Machado said. At 8 a.m. Allen pronounced Herrera dead Machado said. The sheriff's office is the official coroner for Pershing County.
Machado would not comment as to who the screaming woman was.
Lovelock Police Chief Michael Mancebo said that because of certain circumstances, which he would not elaborate on, NDI had been called in to investigate the Herrera's death.
"They are working on a suspicious death investigation. No one is sure if it was murder or an accident, but NDI is leading the investigation now," Mancebo said.
Neither Mancebo nor Machado would confirm a method of death or speculate on a motive for the death. Machado said that the autopsy should be in by Wednesday, but did not confirm that he would release the method of death at that time.
"This is an active investigation and we must treat it according," Machado said.
Mancebo did comment that NDI was obtaining a search warrant to be able to search the entire premises of Herrera's home and that forensics investigators from Washoe County were called in on the investigation.
As of press time there had been no arrest made in the case.
Herrera operated a recycling business out of his 9th St. residence. He was known to most locals by the nickname of Popeye. According to a recent article in the Lovelock Review-Miner he worked full time at EP Minerals and did the recycling business as a hobby to "keep the desert clean."
A couple people remembered Herrera as a friendly man.
"He was really nice. He would give my little girl a cookie or some change when we would take cans in," Lovelock resident Donna Rose said.
"He was a very good person. Sometimes he'd lend you money and he was honest when you cashed in cans. He was just a straight up good guy," former Lovelock resident Tim Sherbinow said.
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