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The lonely, divorced carpenter thought he was going to Brazil to make wedding plans.
Instead, he was drugged and held captive for six days at his fiancée's home while she and another man emptied his bank accounts, according to Brazilian authorities. Then they drove Raymond Merrill, 56, to a vacant lot, where they strangled him with copper wire, doused his body with fuel and set it on fire, investigators say.
The woman he believed was his betrothed is under arrest, along with a man suspected of helping to kill him.
"He would talk to me about ideal relationships and pure love," said Merrill's best friend, Bill Rauch. "With age doesn't necessarily come wisdom. He was used to doing things his way and, in the end, it did him in."
Merrill met Regina Filomena Rachid last year through an online dating service. He was lonely and depressed, having been dumped by a Las Vegas woman for whom he had bought expensive gifts, according to Merrill's best friend.
Merrill and Rachid, 41, exchanged dozens of calls, e-mails and photographs, often enlisting Rachid's 18-year-old daughter as a translator.
"I thought, 'This is going a little fast,' but I didn't want to sound critical," said Merrill's sister, Marcia Sanchez Loebick.
The warning signs were obvious to Rauch, Merrill's friend of nearly 30 years. Merrill gave Rachid $10,000 to start a skin-care clinic and bought her a $20,000 sport utility vehicle. She complained it wasn't a fancier, more expensive model, Rauch said.
"This from a man who was tightfisted," Rauch said. "Ray and I would go out and I'd have to buy all the beers. ...
"I said, 'Ray, these are so many red flags. I can't believe you're pursuing this,' " Rauch said. "He'd say, 'She's just a passionate and emotional Latina.' "
Authorities found Merrill's scorched remains in April but could not identify him, and buried the body in a pauper's grave.
But then Rachid took part in the holdup of a black-market money changer, and left her purse behind, investigators say. The money changer went to police and turned over the purse, which contained Merrill's credit card. When Rachid showed up at the police station to report her purse stolen, she was arrested.
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