California man arrested in 2004 cold case death of 71-year-old victim

MOORPARK, Calif. (TCD) — Officials recently identified and arrested a suspect 20 years after finding an elderly man dead in his home.

According to a news release from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, on April 16, 2004, at around 5:30 p.m., deputies responded to a home on Mountain Trail Street to perform a wellness check, where they found 71-year-old Dennis Wood deceased inside. He had suffered an apparent gunshot wound, and his death was ruled a homicide.

Investigators exhausted all leads at the time, and the case went cold.

The sheriff’s office cold case unit reopened the case in 2023, and they found evidence allegedly linking Antoine Nehme to Wood’s shooting death. According to KTLA-TV, Nehme was 52 years old when the killing occurred.

Investigators arrested Nehme on May 14, and he was booked into the Ventura County Jail on a charge of murder. He remains held on $2 million bail and was scheduled to appear in court on May 16.

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