BEAVER FALLS ― Police have charged a local man with homicide after they said evidence connects him to a body that was found in the city last week.
According to court records, police are charging 37-year-old Daniel Felo II for the murder of 48-year-old Eric Mason, who was found dead in a building along 11th Streer in Beaver Falls on Dec. 30. Throughout several interviews and evidence gathering, police said they believe Felo targeted Mason due to his supposed “ratting” on an unnamed friend to the police.
As of Tuesday evening, Felo has not been taken into police custody. Community members are asked not to approach Felo and to call the City of Beaver Falls Police Department at 724-775-0880 or dial 911 if they have info on Felo’s whereabouts.
In the police report filed on Jan. 3, police said they were first contacted about Mason around 2:39 p.m. Dec. 30. Officers were advised that Mason had stolen the caller’s car the night before, which they believed was now in the area of 11th Street and Second Avenue. The caller advised police that another man was there and would meet the officer.
Minutes later, the detective working the case said they received another call from the victim of the car theft. The caller reported the man had positively identified the car and found Mason inside the Falcons Club at 234 11th St. The caller said a police response and an ambulance were needed because they stated the scene “wasn’t good.”
When disclosing the incident to the public on Dec. 31, police had described the call as a “concern for the welfare of a male subject” but did not release other details of the incident.
Officers arrived at the Falcons Club and met with the man, who told police he had observed the door to the building had been broken off its hinges. The man said he investigated the building while waiting and there appeared to be a body wrapped in tarps inside. Police, upon entering, found Mason wrapped in a tarp without his shoes and bound with extension cords.
Investigators determined Mason had been shot in the back of his head. A blood splatter was also observed on the wall near the victim’s body, with several sets of footprints in the building. The building was under construction, and several workers had access to the building at the time.
Throughout several interviews, police noted details about Felo asking for access to the construction site, where he was organizing labor to help pay off a truck he had bought. Workers at the site told police that throughout the evening of Dec. 29, Felo had handed the keys to another construction worker at his apartment per the property owner’s request, where he was talking with another man. Around 9 a.m. Dec. 30, another construction worker unlocked the building for the other workers but was later informed that Felo told them not to go to work that Monday.
Police also created a timeline for Mason, placing him at Little Joe’s Bar on the night of the incident. Cameras showed him in the Aliquippa area after the bar, around 7:30 p.m., where he allegedly borrowed the car that was later reported stolen by the owner. A witness spotted the vehicle at the crime scene around 8:30 p.m. Dec. 30.
During an interview at the courthouse on Dec. 30, a witness told detectives they had heard Felo making several phone calls on his cellphone. Felo allegedly said Mason was targeted for “ratting” on a friend and bragged about how Mason had “folded so quickly.”
In these phone calls, the witness said Felo talked about how Mason believed he was meeting Felo for business. Felo then allegedly detailed luring Mason to the building with the help of an accomplice, who had not been officially charged as of Tuesday evening. Felo eventually shot and killed Mason in the building, telling someone on the phone that he had intended to cut up the body but could not finish doing so “because it was making him sick,” according to the police report.
When interviewing the alleged accomplice, detectives said he disclosed that he saw Felo inside the building talking to someone “on a Facetime-like app.” Later, while the man was with Felo at his 11th Street apartment, Felo told the man how he had shot and killed Mason and demonstrated how he fell afterward. Felo, after being locked out of the building without the keys, was assisted by this man to regain entry.
Surveillance footage was also found in the area, with police stating that Felo had left his apartment several times that night.
Felo is being charged with homicide, robbery and the prohibited possession of a firearm.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Suspect facing charges in fatal Beaver Falls shooting