A Southern California plumber has been accused of murdering a client — a man whose death was long thought to have been from natural causes.
The 2022 death of Bill Levy got a second look after an investigation into another homicide turned up “alarming” transactions from his bank accounts, law enforcement officials in Ventura County said at a news conference Wednesday.
The beneficiary of those transfers: Rotherie Foster, who had done plumbing work in Levy’s home.
Foster, 38, has now been charged with Levy’s murder, as well as that of a fellow plumber whose body was found by hikers in the Santa Monica Mountains. In both cases, prosecutors contend, Foster killed his victims for their money.
Levy was 72 years old when he was found dead in his home in Los Angeles’ Granada Hills neighborhood on Jan. 10, 2022. After speaking with Levy’s doctor, an investigator with the Los Angeles County medical examiner decided against an autopsy and declared the death natural.
The matter would have ended there — except that, nine months later, the bullet-riddled body of Jose Velasquez was found by hikers near Mulholland Drive. Velasquez, who had been missing since July, was a work acquaintance of Foster’s; both men lived in Camarillo, in Ventura County.
Investigators discovered that Foster had been using Velasquez’s credit cards, bank account and checkbook, and in January 2023, he was charged with the murder.
As they gathered evidence for the prosecution, investigators delved into Foster’s financial records. They found what Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko called “a number of suspicious, troubling and alarming transactions” — including transfers of money from Bill Levy the day after he was found dead.
Levy’s body was exhumed, and an autopsy found he had died from fentanyl poisoning, Ventura County Sheriff James Fryhoff said at the May 22 news conference.
The discovery that Foster had worked in Levy’s home further strengthened the case, and Foster — who has been in Ventura County Jail since last year — was arrested on May 20 on suspicion of the earlier homicide.
Levy’s killing and the related financial crimes bring to 33 the number of felony charges against Foster. He is also charged in the July 2022 robbery of a convenience store in Fillmore.
Foster pleaded not guilty to Velasquez’s murder and is awaiting trial. Though Levy died in Los Angeles, that case will also be prosecuted in Ventura County.
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