



MOUNT DORA -- Police charged a Tavares man with murder Saturday after they said the 20-year-old told police that he strangled an elderly man to death -- despite the victim's frantic pleas of "I'm sorry."

Investigators found Ferdinand "Fred" Schultz, 65, dead inside the bathroom closet of his one-story home, said Lt. Roger Chilton, a spokesman for the Mount Dora Police Department.

Police arrested Hector Perez, a restaurant worker, and charged him with murder and grand theft auto. Perez is being held without bail in the Lake County Jail.

Friends told police that Schultz had been missing for a few days. Officers went to look around his house Saturday, and glimpsed his limp arm through a crack underneath the closet door.

Police said Schultz may have been there since Thursday evening.

Investigators also saw that Schultz's car -- a black 2000 Mercedes convertible -- was missing. Within hours of the body being found, a witness came forward and told police that someone staying with him had been at Schultz's house.

The witness said that Perez had been driving the Mercedes because he was "taking care of the victim's house and car while he was out of town," according to police records.

Police said they brought Perez in for questioning, and he admitted killing Schultz.

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