Julio Chavez-Montoya’s life centered on three things: religion, family and the most iconic building in the city of Oakland.
Chavez-Montoya spent his weekdays in the basement or the boiler room of the Oakland Tribune Tower, where he worked as a maintenance man. When quitting time rolled around he’d catch an elevator to the 10th floor, where he lived in a one-room flat containing the mattress pad where he slept, a small table where he dined and a journal he used — as police would later learn — to confide his concerns and fears. He deviated from this routine on Sundays, when he’d hop on his bicycle and ride six miles to attend church.
But in late January 2023, Chavez-Montoya went from living this life of predictability to simply vanishing without a trace. Five months later, his skeleton was discovered in the hills near the Oakland Zoo, with seemingly no explanation of how it got there. Surveillance cameras focused on the entrances and exits of the Tribune Tower captured him entering the building on Jan. 27, 2023, but not him walking out, authorities said.
Now Oakland police say they’ve pinpointed what happened to Chavez-Montoya and why. They’ve arrested two men, San Leandro resident Matias Simi, 33, and a 36-year-old Sacramento resident named Nai Saechao, who police say offered up a confession that implicated Simi in both Chavez-Montoya’s death and the body disposal, but also placed himself at the scene, according to court records.
Both men are being held at Santa Rita Jail on murder charges, with a preliminary hearing to start next week. Authorities say Simi used to work as a contracted security guard at the Tribune Tower at 13th and Franklin streets, and had clashed with Chavez-Montoya before. He was fired in December 2022 for allegedly sneaking Saechao into the building and stealing an entrance key, authorities said.
The story behind these arrests began in late January 2023, when both Chavez-Montoya’s employers and family grew concerned with his unsolved disappearance. His sister-in-law, a Berkeley resident, called police there to report his disappearance on Feb. 13, 2023. They took eight days to pass the report onto Oakland police, court records show.
“Julio’s birthday was this past February 12th, his parents in Guatemala were expecting a call from him to wish him a happy birthday, but never got that call,” says a Change.com petition create by his family to raise awareness of his disappearance. “We are exhausting every available source we can to try to get any help in finding Julio.”
One of the first things Oakland police investigators did was to review surveillance footage from the tower, which confirmed Chavez-Montoya was seen walking in on Jan. 27, 2023, but never seen leaving. Police interviewed a colleague and Chavez-Montoya’s pastor about a month after his disappearance and both men claimed to have seen him a day or two after the 27th, but in light of Saechao’s confession, police now discount those alleged sightings.
The surveillance captured other suspicious happenings: Simi and a man later identified as Saechao were seen entering the building on the evening of Jan. 27, 2023 and leaving the following morning. Not only that, they were wheeling a garbage bin with them, authorities said. The two returned on the evening of Jan. 28 and once again allegedly wheeled out a garbage bin and a suitcase as they exited. The property’s manager told authorities neither man had permission to enter, nor should they have had a key, authorities said.
The boiler room, where Chavez-Montoya worked, appeared to have been recently cleaned, despite no work orders indicating it had been, authorities said. And in Chavez-Montoya’s room, police found a journal entry indicating he had ongoing problems with “Matias,” an allegation that was backed up by family and co-workers who alleged Simi had threatened Chavez-Montoya before, authorities said.
Identifying Simi was relatively easy, given he was known to the building’s employees and that a Toyota registered to him was seen nearby. Police arrested Simi on suspicion of burglarizing the Tribune Tower, and he allegedly identified Saechao as the other man in the surveillance footage. Saechao took some work to track down, but police found he was living in a tent in Sacramento and brought him in on an arrest warrant for allegedly violating probation from a gun possession conviction, authorities said.
Saechao had much more to say than Simi during his police interview, according to investigators. He admitted that after he and Simi entered the Tribune Tower in late January, Chavez-Montoya recognized Simi and the two argued, leading to Simi bludgeoning Chavez-Montoya to death. The two then wheeled his body out of the building, but Saechao claimed he had Simi drop him off at a family member’s home in Hayward, rather than assist in the body dump.
Saechao’s statement to police was made in March 2023, roughly a year before Alameda County prosecutors charged him. It is unclear what led to the delay, although police didn’t confirm the identity of Chavez-Montoya’s body until last December.
Before Chavez-Montoya’s skeleton was discovered, authorities say friends and family members received calls demanding a ransom for his safe return, with one caller saying they would “cut him to pieces” if $8,000 wasn’t received. The calls were made from Chavez-Montoya’s cellphone, which bounced off a tower near Simi’s San Leandro home, authorities said.
The preliminary hearing is set to begin April 22.
Staff writer Harry Harris contributed to this report